Robert de Blois was an Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

 poet and trouvère

Trouvère

Trouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur , is the Northern French form of the word trobador . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...

, the author of narrative

Narrative poetry

Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...

, lyric

Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...

, didactic, and religious works. He is known only through his own writings, but one lyric poem ascribed to him, Li departis de douce contree, mentions his involvement in a failed Crusade of 1239.

Robert wrote two manuals of instruction on courtly behaviour

Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....

: one for noblemen and one for noblewomen. The Enseignement des princes describes how men are to act in public and their moral and religious duties. The Chastoiement des dames (or Enseignements des dames), on the other hand, describes a woman's domestic role, concentrating on etiquette, manners, and modesty. Robert's values have been described as "conservative", but his tone is at times "bantering" and he displays "a measure of flair and wit" (Krueger).

Floris et Lyriopé (or Liriopé) is a lengthy narrative poem drawn from Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

. Robert relates the deeds of Narcissus

Narcissus (mythology)

Narcissus or Narkissos , possibly derived from ναρκη meaning "sleep, numbness," in Greek mythology was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty. He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him...

's parents, how they met. His father Floris seduces Lyriopé by dressing in woman's clothes.

In one manuscript both enseignements and the Floris are incorporated into the unfinished Arthurian romance Beaudous. In a scene reminiscent of Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...

's Perceval

Perceval

Perceval may refer to*Spencer Perceval, British prime minister*Percival or Perceval, Arthurian knight...

, Beaudous is instructed by his mother before joining the court of King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

.

Five lyric poems attributed to Robert survive, two of them with more than one melody. All the melodies are recorded in bar form

Bar form

Bar form is a musical form of the pattern AAB.-Original Use:The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to describe their songs and the songs of the predecessors, the minnesingers of the 12th to 14th century...

. His lyric work, however, appears to have found a limited audience. Its manuscript tradition is slight and it had no influence on subsequent poets.

List of lyric works

• Merveil moi que chanter puis
• Par trop celer mon courage
• Puisque me sui de chanter entremis
• Li departis de douce contree (several melodies)
• Tant com je fusse fors de ma contree (several melodies)