The Tale of the Alerion

Edited and translated by Minnette Gaudet and Constance B. Hieatt. Published in 1994. Reprinted in paperback 2013. Guillaume de Machaut, the most important poet and musician of fourteenth-century France, had considerable influence on subsequent generations of writers in both France and England: among them, Charles d'Orléans, Christine de Pizan, and Geoffrey Chaucer. The 'Dit de l'alerion', one of his long narrative poems, is particularly interesting for students of Chaucer, but has remained inaccessible to contemporary readers because of the difficulties inherent in Middle French and in Machaut's enigmatic use of the language. With this scholarly translation, Minnette Gaudet and Constance B. Hieatt make this interesting and long-neglected treatise on love and falconry available to students of medieval literature. In the poem, Machaut defines the problems and pleasures of courtly love by comparing them to those of falconry, a sport which modern readers know little about. The introduction and notes to this edition provide valuable information about the art of falconry, thus clarifying aspects of the poem which might be incomprehensible today. The scholarly notes and introduction furnish explications and variant readings of obscure passages and comments on wordplay. A running summary of the contents of the poem is also provided in the margins. The editors have retained the peculiarities and playfulness of Machaut's style by duplicating, in so far as possible, the poet's wordplay and the intricate rhythms of his octosyllabic verse. They have therefore chosen to create a verse translation in preference to one in prose. As the only translation of Machaut's poem, this volume will be of value to all medievalists, and especially to Chaucerians.