Abbreviations: BD: Chaucer, Book of the Duchess, ed. Benson; DMF: Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française Dictionnaire de Moyen Français; LGW: Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, ed. Benson; CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; Hassell: Hassell, Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases; JRB: Machaut, Le Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne; JRN: Machaut, Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre; OM: Ovide Moralisé, ed. Cornelis de Boer; RR: Roman de la Rose, trans. Dahlberg; TC: Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, ed. Benson.

1–458 Au departir dou . . . . en terre mis. Instead of evoking the springtime setting that is such a conventional element of love poetry, this section takes place during the autumn and describes the events surrounding the outbreak of the Black Death. For further discussion, see the introduction to this volume (p. 21).

9 hoqués. The term hoqués is interestingly ambiguous here since its two commonly at tested senses, a musical form and a musical style characterized by rapid alternation of fragments of melody between the voices, giving a hiccupping effect, are each meaningful here. In the Prologue Machaut uses the term to denote a kind of musical work, so I have translated with that sense in mind here. But the line could alternatively be rendered: “held their service with notes and rests.”

62 Jehans li Ermites. Likely a reference to St. John the Silent (d. 558), who was appointed bishop of Colonia in his native Armenia at age twenty-eight. After serving in that office for nine years, he retired to a monastery where he eventually had himself walled up, there to live as a recluse. Later, for some years, he lived as a hermit in the desert.

109–42 Et pour ce . . . . plus grant merencolie. The reference to the Book of Ecclesiastes is a commonplace element in the topos mundus senescit or “the world grows old.” Machaut’s pessimism and world-weariness here are thoroughly conventional.

151–80 Car ce fu . . . . en fu perie. The astrological and meteorological events mentioned here are attested in the various chronicles of the period. Machaut is likely following one of them closely. See also lines 214–56.

158–62 De lune esclipce . . . . clarté et couleur. The most notable of the heavenly signs, including various astrological configurations, and seen as predicting the coming epidemic, was the lunar eclipse on 17 January 1348.

172 La terre trambla de paour. This devastating earthquake occurred on 25 January 1348.

175 Quarenteinne. Carinthia or Kärnten is the southernmost province in Austria.

189–228 Car les batailles . . . . ceste mortel descouvenue. Machaut’s point about human destructiveness is a general one, but he is also likely to be referring in particular to the depredations of the ongoing struggle between France and England known to modern historians as the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453).

212–28 une merdaille . . . . Ceste mortel descouvenue. By the early fourteenth century a population of Jews numbering at least 100,000 had settled in northern France, with an especially strong and vibrant community in Machaut’s native Champagne. Persecutions and expulsions followed the spreading of rumors that the Jews, secretly in the service of the Muslim ruler of Granada, were plotting to poison the wells and murder the Christian population. At the outbreak of the plague in 1348, these rumors of a Jewish plot were revived and credited by many in the Christian community, including educated men like Machaut. Persecution and murder followed, and in 1394 the Jewish community in France was again expelled, this time definitively for some centuries.

241–56 En ce temps . . . . chans estoit herisie. The flagellant movement, a distortion of a more widespread Christian practice, did not begin, as Machaut suggests, at the time of the plague’s outbreak. Originating in thirteenth-century northern Italy, this group, which amounted to a rival Christian sect with its own preachers and devotions, was officially condemned by Pope Clement IV in 1349. By that time, it had spread northward across the Alps to Germany, Bohemia, and Poland. With the outbreak of the epidemic, itinerant bands of adherents made their way from the east to northern France and traveled from town to town. In public places they would strip down and beat themselves and each other bloody with, among other instruments, leather whips studded with small nails designed to tear the flesh. Their preachers would exhort the townspeople to repent of their sins, which, they maintained, had brought down God’s wrath, like many at the time endorsed. Those devotions included the singing of hymns, as Machaut indicates.

406 De cent n’en demorroit que nuef. Modern historians estimate that between a quarter and a half of the population died from the disease in northern France. As Machaut indicates, “scientific” explanations for the epidemic ranged from the poisoning of the wells to meteorological conditions (a deadly “miasma”) to unusual astrological conjunctions.

431–58 Et quant je . . . . en terre mis. If this part of the poem is accurate autobiography, then Machaut is probably referring to his residence in Reims as the “house” where, far from the rest of the city, he sat out the ravages of the epidemic. See Bowers, “Canonry of Reims,” for a different view.

459 Si qu’einsi fui lonc temps en mue. Here, the historical Machaut makes way for his textual counterpart, the bumbling and ungracious Guillaume who resembles the real-life poet only in some particulars. As Calin notes, the timidity and misogyny displayed by Guillaume are “traditionally ascribed to the clergy.” He continues that it is “appropriate that a canon at Reims should be afflicted with them, but incongruous that a master in the doctrine of love and potential lover should fear or dislike the object of love” (Calin, Poet at the Fountain, p. 117).

480 Je n’os mie cuer esperdu. At this point, the poem leaves behind history, with its sadness, death, and political turmoil, for the conventional setting of love poetry, as a new spring time appropriately turns the narrator’s thoughts to the outdoors and, after some coaxing, to matters of love.

507–19 Or porroit aucuns . . . . chose ne pensoie. Hare-hunting in the courtly texts of the period is often a slyly oblique way of referring to the pursuit of women (based on an obscene double entendre). Ma chaut does not reproduce the double entendre here, so it is not certain whether he meant the passage to be read in other than a literal sense. It is known from other sources that he did possess a horse named Grisart (line 489) and owned some hunting dogs; this means that a literal, autobiographical meaning may well be intended here.

611–12 Si fais estas . . . homme en valeur. The grammar of these lines is very obscure. The translation offered here is not certain, hardly more than an educated guess.

760–68 Guillaume, mervilleussement . . . . les dames prisiez. After the extended opening section discussing the plague and Guillaume’s encounter with the lady, this is the first mention of the main subject matter of the poem.

779–801 Guillaume, que vous . . . . devez bien escuser. Note that the gender politics of the failed-greeting motif from JRB are reversed here. In the earlier poem, it was the lady who, lost in grief, ignored the nobleman’s salute, while here it is Guillaume, preoccupied with his hunting, who does not acknowledge the lady’s presence. See JRB, lines 56–74. Perhaps Guillaume protests too much about his innocence of the lady’s initial charge of failing to pay her proper attention. In JRB, the lady is overcome with grief when she first crosses paths with her nobleman, but here Guillaume’s excuses are weaker: preoccupation with his pursuit of hares and the unlikeliness that he would deliberately wish to offend her.

811 Vers les dames estes forfais. As this line indicates, the infidelity versus death debate is quickly forgotten and the dispute becomes one of men against women: a battle of the sexes to decide who loves best (Calin, “Contre la fin’amor,” pp. 76–77).

827–34 je le doubtay . . . . mainnent bonne vie. Guillaume’s overconfidence about his own innocence is evidenced by his admission here that he fears only the malevolence of lying gossips, not any error he might have made. Yet his failure to notice the presence of his lady suggests that the poet’s monitoring of his own behavior, particularly toward women whom he should respect, might be less than reliable.

844–47 Pour faire certein . . . Amener a conclusion. Another indication of the main theme of the poem.

884–95 J’ay bien de . . . . longuement y metteroie. “Behind the humor of this passage we can clearly see Machaut’s pride in the number and diversity of his poetic works. At the same time, the entire discussion stresses that these disparate works are united as the work of a single individual. Properly arranged, they would create a coherent composite picture of his poetic craft and his doctrine of love” (Huot, From Song to Book, p. 248). Huot goes on to discuss Machaut’s possible involvement with manuscript production as part of the creation of a larger corpus, and draws a parallel between the sentiments of the fictional Guillaume and those of the real-life poet (pp. 248–59).

929–1030 Une question fu . . . . avez griefment meffait. Though it is not named, it is clear from the summary that this is JRB, where the king’s decision about who suffers more, a betrayed man or a bereaved woman, becomes the issue debated by Guillaume and the lady, later revealed as Happiness. See note to JRB, lines 1267–84, for more on narrative doubling.

1037 Car li contraires, c’est li drois. Guillaume, as it turns out, never embraces the “opposite view,” as his lady puts it, but simply acknowledges that he has been defeated in the debate and, impressed by the great nobility of his erstwhile opponent, agrees to complete the assigned penance.

1071–88 Nous penrons un . . . . Q’vaurront auques jugemens. Note that Guillaume, rejecting the lady’s accusation of his shortcomings, demands that their case be presented to a man for judgment. Appropriately enough, he gets his wish when the King of Navarre agrees to decide the question. Ironically, though, the king chooses as advisers three of the lady’s female courtiers: Discernment, Moderation, and Reason, who are hardly predisposed to Guillaume’s point of view.

1096–114 Navarrois . . . adés en parloie. This very flattering description of Charles de Navarre can be compared to that of Jean de Luxembourg in JRB, lines 1291–348. The laudatory portrait was an essential part of the patronage system.

1151 N’i fu Margot ne Agnesot. The literal translation here is “there was no Maggie or Agnes present.”

1155–328 La premiere estoit . . . . passoit sa biauté. Here follows a long catalogue and “characterization” of twelve allegorical figures who embody different aspects of the lady’s character. Compare those introduced in lines 1476–85 in the JRB. Just what the twelve are varies somewhat, though the idea comes mainly from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics 4.2–5, which had strong bearing on Aquinas and most medieval analyses of moral behavior. Machaut’s twelve figures that define the character of his lady are: 1) Understanding manifesting with Discretion; 2) Reason; 3) Temperance; 4) Peace with Concord; 5) Faith; 6) Constancy; 7) Charity; 8) Honesty; 9) Prudence, with Wisdom in her heart; 10) Generosity, who condemns Avarice; 11) Wariness of Misdeed, being perpetually on guard, protected by Shame and Fear (compare RR, see Intro, pp. 16–17); and 12) Sufficiency, who places her beyond Fortune’s grasp. Aristotle’s catalogue, defining virtue as consciousness of choice, is as follows: 1) Courage; 2) Temperance manifesting self control; 3) Liberality or generosity; 4) Magnificence; 5) Magnanimity or high-mindedness; 6) Ambition, modified by balance toward the mean; 7) Gentleness or mansuetude; 8) Friendship and Courtesy; 9) Honesty or truthfulness about oneself; 10) Wittiness and Jocularity; 11) Modesty, with a sense of shame; 12) Justice and Fairness, righteous indignation that deserves a separate chapter unto itself. Spenser initially appears to have planned The Faerie Queene to be in twelve books, each defined by one of the virtues (see his Prologue), though he completed only six: Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.

1374–92 Ma chiere dame . . . . j’en parleray. Once again, Guillaume fails here to be guided by his lady’s pleasure, preferring to wait until the (male) judge arrives rather than presenting his case to her female courtiers.

1385–89 Et si croy . . . . supposant sans prejudice. Here, as throughout the debate, the technical language of scholastic debate is invoked to describe the proceedings, creating an ironic disjunction between the formality of the language (and the intellectual procedure it is meant to control) and the often comic tone of the disputation.

1462–9 Ma dame chiere . . . . moult se debatirent. The mini-debate between the King of Navarre and the lady is filled with class humor, satirizing the fine points of polite behavior and distinctions in rank that hardly seem significant, a perhaps excessive concern on the part of these noble characters.

1515–44 Car de cause . . . . protestation dou contraire. Again the story of JRB and the lady’s subsequent displeasure is repeated.

1565–66 que j’esliray / Tel conseil, comme je vorray. Navarre’s decision to use consultants in making his choices is admirable, especially if he were “to take counsel from all sides” (line 1571). However, they all come from the lady’s entourage, such as Understanding (line 1583), Discretion (line 1585), Reason (line 1589), and Moderation (1597), which may not work much to Guillaume’s advantage. He should be accompanied by the same virtues which are, of course, not gender specific.

1619–28 Se fourmerez vostre . . . . le puis savoir. Setting the tone of the trial, the King of Navarre suggests that each party should air their general concerns, rather than once again describing the specific details of the case in JRB. In the section that follows, the lady’s speech (lines 1629–1702) follows the king’s command by setting out the terms of the debate with considerable rhetorical flourish in the form of an extended metaphor: the turtle dove and the stork are both birds conventionally associated with faithfulness and loyalty to a single mate. In her opinion, they are a fitting description of the feminine experience of love. With the lady’s formal presentation of her complaint, the debate — or perhaps the trial — begins here.

1696–1700 Mais la dame . . . . amans ne sent. The lady’s point is that men, with more control over their lives than women, have at their disposal many courses of action to remediate romantic sorrow, including that caused by a lover’s betrayal.

1809–25 Vous avez . . . . en lui venir. Surely Temperance is correct in pointing out that Guillaume is arrogant to claim victory, having only proven that, when faced with a lover’s betrayal, a man cannot claim his lot by surrendering to violence, a mortal sin.

1857ff. S’en compteray .i. petit compte . . . . In order to argue their cases, Guillaume and the allegorical prosecution use a series of exemplary stories which illustrate the points that they are attempting to make. Thus, the narrative turns away from the original catalyst for the trial: “the Jugement Navarre [sic] moves very quickly beyond the parameters of the earlier poem[JRB], becoming an extended meditation on the intertwined phenomena of love and pain, as experienced by men, on the one hand, and women, on the other” (Huot, “Consolation of Poetry,” p. 180). In contrast to the tales in the Confort d’ami (see volume 2), which are biblical and classical, the stories in this text include some which are specifically French and seem near-contemporary. See also the episode of the clerk from Orleans (lines 2215–314) and that of the Chatelaine de Vergy (lines 2836–38).

1863–2010 Il n’a pas . . . . en fu tourmentee. This first story told by Temperance outlines the feminine response to suffering that will be upheld by the lady and her counselors throughout the debate. Huot describes this reaction as “characterized by bodily reactions of illness or death, whether by suicide or simply from the effects of grief and emotional trauma” (“Consolation of Poetry,” p. 180).

1903 Premiers s’orine resgarderent. Examination of the patient’s urine is the first diagnostic step in matters of internal medicine, picked up frequently in literature to indicate a doctor’s competence. Compare the Ellesmere drawing of Chaucer’s Physician holding a urine flask on high even as he rides his horse, with the mockery of such a gesture by the Host in the prologue to the Pardoner’s Tale: “God so save thy gentil cors, / And eek thyne urynals and thy jurdones” (CT VI [C] 304–5). See also The Croxton Play of the Sacrament, where, when another Jonathas is sorely afflicted, those in attendance call “the most famous phesycyan / That ever sawe uryne” (lines 535–36).

1929 li bons philosophes. The “good philosopher” is likely Galen, the Greek thinker and physician (c. 130–200) whose opinions of medicine and human physiology were rarely challenged during the Middle Ages.

1933 Sont curees par leur contraire. According to Hippocrates, “Diseases caused by repletion are cured by depletion; those caused by depletion are cured by repletion, and in general contraries are cured by contraries” (Hippocrates, Aphorisms section 2, ch. 22). The concept became proverbial; see Whiting C414, and Hassell C287.

2055–58 La est il . . . . la le delivreroit. The meaning of these lines is fairly clear, but the relevance of the ideas contained therein is questionable. This may well be another example of Guillaume’s “ineffective” argument. See lines 1750–62 and the corresponding note above for a similar lapse of good rhetoric.

2095–132 Dydo roïne de Cartage . . . truis en l’istoire. The Middle Ages knew the tragic story of the love affair between the Trojan Aeneas and his beloved Carthaginian Dido from Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid, and from the writings of Ovid. Machaut may have drawn on the long twelfth-century romance based on Virgil’s epic, the Roman d’Eneas, but it seems more likely that his main source was the monumental early-fourteenth-century French translation of Ovid’s works, the Ovide Moralisé, for the details of the story, including Dido’s pregnancy, which is not mentioned in Virgil. After the murder of her husband Sychaeus, Dido has fled her native Phoenicia for Carthage, where, remaining faithful to the dead man, she establishes a powerful kingdom. When the shipwrecked Aeneas makes his way to her palace, Dido is seduced into loving him by the man’s divine mother, the goddess Venus. This love affair shames her in the eyes of her people and neighboring rulers. Summoned by the gods to reestablish the Trojan kingdom in Italy, Aeneas abandons Dido, who commits suicide rather than face the wrath of the gods and the ignominy of this betrayal. See OM 14.302–602. In this context, the story serves to highlight the depths of feminine grief when a woman’s love has been betrayed. For other reworkings of this story, see Chaucer, LGW, lines 924–1367, and Gower, CA, 4.77–137. Machaut’s extensive borrowings from OM are discussed in more detail in the introduction to Volume 2 of Guillaume de Machaut: The Complete Poetry and Music.

2215–314 A Orliens . . . . mesjugier vous gardez. The story of the clerk from Orleans is an example of the masculine response to suffering, according to Huot. Here the clerk “escape[s] it entirely through the amnesia of madness”(“Consolation of Poetry,” p. 180). It is interesting that the protagonists of this story are neither members of the nobility, nor are they drawn from classical sources, but come from Machaut’s own social and economic milieu.

2362–76 Aussi de vostre . . . . le sache diter. Faith’s counter-argument.

2377–80 Damoiselle vueilliez laissier . . . . le cuer doloir. Guillaume’s defensiveness seems humorously out of proportion to the “threatening” to which he suggests he has been subjected.

2434–532 Uns riches homs . . . . plaist a dire. Machaut also draws upon the story of the nobleman and the tree in the Lay de Plour, lines 33–37.

2434–70 Un riche homs . . . . Plaisanment et esbanier. This passage plays on the fact that French has grammatical gender; ente is feminine, while arbre is masculine. The French term for a “graft” has multiple resonances — scion, offshoot, flowering branch, new growth and fruitfulness (see DMF, ente (n.1), sense B). Figuratively, it can mean descent or “stock,” which might apply here too. The grafting as she matures proclaims a rich and worthy descent, that appeals to her lord and those who love her.

2561 L’ACTEUR. Here, the authorial speaker narrates the actions of two characters, rather than speaking as the character, Guillaume. The speech heading here is from the base MS (as are all the speech headings). These speech markers may have been copied for in vivo reading to an audience, so “l’acteur” can be understood as either author or performer (reader). “L’acteur” appears twice more as a speech heading, at lines 2693 and 3725.

2654 verbi gracia. That is, “thanks for the words.”

2699–706 On a veu . . . . a ma matire. As in JRB, the debate here widens in scope from the agreed-upon question of relative suffering to the more general issue of whether it is men or women who love more faithfully and deeply.

2707–822 Quant cil d’Athennes . . . . fame ne sent. Like that of Dido and Aeneas, the story of Theseus was well known to the Middle Ages, especially through the writings of Ovid. Machaut’s source for the legend is here again OM (7.1681–2038). Minos, King of Crete, is married to Pasiphaë, who has borne him a son, Androgeus, as well as two daughters, Ariadne and Phaedra. Because of a slight to his dignity, the god Poseidon causes the woman to develop a fatal passion for a bull; the result of their coupling is the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. King Aegeus of Athens kills Androgeus, and Minos then imposes a deadly yearly tax on the citizens of the city of seven young men and seven young maidens, who are sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theseus is chosen by lot to be one of those sacrificed, but he proves able to win the affections of Ariadne who provides him with a ball of thread with which to escape from the labyrinth where the monster lives. Theseus then kills the beast and escapes from Crete with Ariadne and her sister, Phaedra. Stopping at the island of Naxos, he leaves Ariadne behind and makes his way to Athens with Phaedra, whom he subsequently marries. Ariadne, however, does not fail to prosper; the god Dionysus falls in love with and then marries her, and she is made immortal by Zeus. Though Frankness narrates the myth in detail, it is the story of Ariadne’s desertion by Theseus that is most relevant to her argument. A popular theme in art and literature; for other examples, see Ovid, Heroides letter 10 and Chaucer, LGW, lines 1886–2227.

2770–800 Aussi dirai je . . . . par l’air fuitive. The story of Jason’s pursuit of the Golden Fleece, though treated in Greek epic, was better known in the Middle Ages in the Roman poet Ovid’s shortened version. Machaut’s sources, as for all the classic tales retold inThe Art of Courtly Love, is OM (7.8–682), though he may also have known a Latin version of the Troy story in which the tale of Jason appears, the Historia Destructionis Troiae of Guido delle Colonne. Jason and his companions, the Argonauts, journey to Colchis to obtain a great treasure, the Golden Fleece. Medea, the king’s daughter, falls in love with Jason and helps him to obtain the fleece. After several harrowing adventures, in which Medea’s command of the black arts figures significantly, the two establish themselves in Corinth, there to rule together until Jason attempts to divorce Medea so that he can marry Creusa. Medea sends the unfortunate woman a poisoned robe that delivers her to a horrible death and, to gain further vengeance on her betraying husband, murders their children, afterwards escaping the city in a chariot drawn by dragons. For other examples of a sympathetic portrayal of Medea, see Chaucer, LGW, lines 1580–1671 and, especially, Gower, CA 5.3247–4237.

2810–11 On ne porroit . . . . comme en femme. These classical exempla, of course, also provide histories of well-known faithless, conscienceless men: Jason and Theseus.

2836–40 Chascuns scet bien . . . . vit pour s’amour. The reference is to the thirteenth-century French romance, La Chatelaine de Vergy, which traces the misery and pain that result from, first, a young wife’s betrayal of her husband and, second, a jealous woman’s betrayal of her husband’s trust. The chatelaine’s lover is approached by the Duchess of Burgundy, his lord’s wife, and he refuses her love, protesting that he loves another, although no one knows of their affair. The knight has promised the chatelaine never to reveal their relationship, but he is forced to break his word when the duchess complains to her husband that the man has insulted and lied to her. Only by telling the duke of his affair, his meetings arranged by the little dog the chatelaine lets into the garden to signal she is alone, does he free himself from his lord’s anger and probable exile. The duke promises never to reveal the knight’s secret, but he in turn breaks the promise when the duchess extorts the truth from him, though he does enjoin her on pain of death never to reveal the secret. The jealous woman does so, however, causing the deaths of the chatelaine and her lover, who stabs himself when a servant tells him the truth. The duke exacts a terrible revenge on his wife, killing the woman, and then he departs on a crusade. It might be pointed out that this is a particularly inept example for Guillaume to adduce, since the story involves the betrayal of a sworn trust by two otherwise morally irreproachable men, the lover and the duke. A translation of this work is included in Palmer, Medieval Epic and Romance, pp. 799–824.

2841 Lancelos et Tristans. These famed lovers were involved in tragic relationships with the wives of their sovereigns, Tristan with Iseut, the wife of King Marc, and Lancelot with Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. As incorporated within Arthurian legend in the thirteenth century, Tristan’s story ends with the young man, estranged from his beloved, dying on a battlefield of his wounds and despair. Iseut finds his body and dies herself from grief. In that same tradition, likely known to Machaut, the illicit affair between Lancelot and Guinevere leads in part to the destruction of Arthur’s kingdom. “Virtuous” Lancelot and Tristan, of course, are both involved in adulterous affairs with the wives of their lords — perhaps yet another instance of Guillaume’s inattention to detail in the case he makes in support of men. Machaut also points to Tristan and Lancelot as examples of ideal lovers in Confort, line 2803 and Lyon, line 1321. For other references to this story, see Oton de Granson’s «J’ay tout perdu; le festu est rompu», «A Dalida, Jhezabel, et Thays» and Le Livre Messire Ode (Poems, ed. Nicholson and Grenier-Winther, pp. 54, 60–62, 212–326 respectively).

2851–98 Une dame sans . . . . qu’elle y mist. According to Huot, the story of the knight who cut off his finger stages “a masculine response to suffering” by transforming it into a heroic gesture (“Consolation of Poetry,” p. 180). See the story of the clerk from Orleans (lines 2215–314) for a masculine response to emotional turmoil.

2920–95 Est loiez s’il . . . . po a debatre. The theme of moderation reflects the advice that the narrator gives Charles in lines 1675–78 of the Confort. However, Guillaume makes himself an unintended butt of humor by praising the power of moderation after telling the story of a man who cuts off his own finger to demonstrate his obedience to his lover’s commands.

3009–10 Certes Franchise vous . . . . bien dire savez. Guillaume here responds to Franchise, pointedly ignoring what Prudence had just said.

3019–46 Il est certain . . . . seroit encor reprouvez. Guillaume’s description of the fickleness of a woman’s heart is a common topos in misogynist literature, in which the voice is that of a frustrated male. See, for example, the Chaucerian lyric “Against Women Unconstant” (Benson, Riverside Chaucer, p. 657). The motif is prominent in Jean de Meun’s treatment of a jealous husband and his dissatisfaction with women who are disobedient to his wishes (RR lines 8425–9462).

3055–89 Ce que je . . . . paier la lamproie. In the course of returning the debate to its original issue — who suffered more, the man or the woman — Guillaume manages as well to broaden it, introducing by way of defense the anti-feminist view that women are more fickle and changeable than men. He thereby ensures that he will lose the debate, providing strong evidence that he does harbor misogynist thoughts even if, technically speaking, he buttresses his “published” view that the betrayed nobleman is in more pain than the bereaved lady, for her “fickleness” will ensure that her grief will soon end.

3112–13 Et s’avez esté a l’escole . . . d’aler en change. The meaning here is somewhat obscure, perhaps a confusing reference to the stereotypical anti-feminist of the late Middle Ages, the university scholar.

3141–67 Lors etroÿ une . . . . Doubtance de meffaire. The debate shifts. Although many of the characters have had their say, Guillaume remains stubbornly unconvinced, and they are beginning to get angry.

3170 Et commensa par tel maniere. Offended by Guillaume’s obstinate declaration that women are fickle and hence do not suffer long in love, the female courtiers offer a series of classical exempla to prove the persistence unto death of women in love.

3171–212 Que fist Tysbé . . . . a mort comparer. The story of Pyramus and Thisbé has likely also been borrowed by Machaut from OM (4. 219–1169). The two grow up as neighbors in the city of Babylon, prohibited by their parents from communicating with one another. But they find a crack in the wall that divides their two houses and, one day, make plans to meet outside the city, close to the tomb of Ninus. Thisbé arrives before the young man and, as she waits for him, is frightened by a lion. She flees in haste, dropping her veil, which the beast, its jaws bloody from a recent kill, mouths before dropping. When Pyramus arrives, he finds the bloody veil, thinks that his lover has been killed because of his negligence, and stabs himself. Thisbé returns to find him dead and, wishing to live no longer, kills herself with the same sword.

3221–307 Leandus li biaus . . . . fiel encontre baume. The story of Hero and Leander is also taken from OM (4.3150–731). In Greek mythology, Hero is the priestess of Aphrodite (Venus) in Sestos, with whom Leander, who lives across the Hellespont in Abydos, falls in love. At night he swims across the watery passage to visit her, but one night during a storm the light that Hero holds for him as a guide blows out. Leander loses his way and drowns. Discovering his body the next day, Hero, despairing, throws herself into the sea and is drowned as well.

3365–69 Adont la dame . . . . tout en oiant. Here the lady returns to the debate.

3398–412 Or ne sceus . . . . plus a repos. Machaut inserts a strikingly plausible explanation of how Guillaume was able to find out about the Judge’s private deliberations. According to Nicholson, Machaut’s later dits show a shift to an increasingly realist setting and tone, of which this is a good example. See Nicholson, Love and Ethics, pp. 15–18.

3414–26 Je suis commis . . . . nous avons loisir. The Judge, like a wise man, calls upon counselors — both male and female — to accord with his deliberations. Compare Prudence’s advice in Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee (CT [B2] 2191–203). Here, unlike Melibee who demands advice from flatterers, enemies and false counselors, the lady’s judge invokes advice from Reason’s company — Discretion, Understanding, and Moderation — who weigh Guillaume’s arguments objectively, without personal bias.

3441–4001 Ce jugement avez . . . . tous les poins. In summing up the case (which is another example of the type of narrative doubling that frequently occurs in this text), Moderation and Reason outline the reasons why Guillaume should be condemned. Calin identifies four different points in their argument: Guillaume has pleaded his case badly using inappropriate evidence and false reasoning, he has spoken out against ladies and Love, he has not shown the lady proper courtesy and, finally, that it is wrong to view jealousy as worse than grief. Calin’s main point is that condemning Guillaume on the basis of carelessness and his poor rhetorical skills means that Machaut’s own argument put forth in JRB remains intact (Poet at the Fountain, pp. 111–13).

3609–14 Dont Guillaumes est . . . . pour li punir. The point is that Guillaume offended against the dignity of the noble lady by arguing with her when she rightly upbraided him for his insults against women.

3649–838 Dont ma dame . . . . de sa poësté. In addition to arguing with a lady whose views he should accept unconditionally, Guillaume is convicted for both advancing an incorrect opinion (death is the worst of all human misfortunes) and conducting himself incompetently. Guillaume, we learn, would have been made to suffer a more dire punishment had it not been for the mercy shown him by the lady, whom Guillaume, lost in his self-concern, has failed to identify properly or even inquire about. Abashed and ashamed, Guillaume now asks Reason who his benefactress is.

3851 Bonneürté. Meaning, happiness. This is the first time that the lady is referred to as Bonneürté. An alternative translation of the name would be Good Fortune, and indeed the lady, with her metaphysical powers and presence, partakes of some of the qualities conventionally assigned to the goddess Fortuna in the Middle Ages, following the influential portrayal in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, one of the central texts of the era and an important source for Machaut. At the same time, the lady, in her humanity and good humor, undoubtedly recalls as well Bonne (“Good”) de Luxembourg, daughter of Jean de Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, and Machaut’s generous patroness before her death during the plague.

4093 li changes. The DMF defines chainse (n., sense a) as “longue tunique de femme, à manches, robe faite de toile de lin ou de chanvre” [a long tunic for women, with sleeves; or a dress made of linen or hemp].

4177–89 de .iij. amendes . . . . une balade. This judgment, punishing the author by demanding more writing, provides a reasonable conclusion to the debate. See, for example, Chaucer’s Prologue to LGW, where the poet must go back to his library and write more (lines F.548–77).

4182 .i. lay. Of the three assigned lyric penances, only a lay seems to have been composed, and this piece follows directlyThe Art of Courtly Love, itself in three early manuscripts of Machaut’s works, but (except for E) not in the later ones that are generally regarded as more authoritative by modern scholars because the poet likely supervised their production. It may be that some years after writing the poem Machaut decided not to include the lay.

Abbreviations: B: Paris, Bn,F fr. 1585; C: Paris, BnF, fr. 1586; D: Paris, BnF, fr. 1587; E: Paris, BnF, fr. 9221; F: Paris, BnF, fr. 22545; G: Paris, BnF, fr. 22546; H: Oeuvres de Guillaume de Machaut, ed. Ernest Hœpffner; J: Paris, Arsenal 5203; K: Berne, Burger-bibliothek 218; JRB: Machaut, Le Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne; JRN: Machaut, Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre; M: Paris, BnF, fr. 843; MS: Paris, BnF, fr. 1584 [base text]; P: Paris, BnF, fr. 2166; Pm: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 396; R: Paris, BnF, fr. 2230; Vg: Cambridge, Parker Library, Ferrell 1 (formerly Vogüé Ferrell).

The JRN is found together with the JRB in eight Machaut manuscripts that contain only the works of the poet. These are, together with their customary sigla: Vg, B, D, E, F, M, MS, Pm. The JRB is found without the JRN in an additional twelve manuscripts (a complete listing can be found in Earp, A Guide to Research, p. 207). For a variety of reasons, one of these is an excellent, if early, witness to the JRB: C.

For reasons set out at some length in the introduction, this edition takes A (here MS) as an authoritative text for Machaut’s works, including the two dits and the lay included in this volume. Because of the unique authority of MS the practice has been to deviate from its readings only in clear cases of spelling error, scribal misinterpretation, and omissions or miswritings of various kinds (such as diplographies). In these cases, the reading of MS simply been corrected. In the case of the JRB, there are several passages of some length that have been neatly excised in MS’s version of the text; this “editing” can hardly be interpreted as other than deliberate, and since there is good reason to think that Machaut himself might have been involved in the preparation of this text (of the fair copy that was its basis), these lacunae, if that is what they are, have been supplied from C. In keeping with the minimal variant policy of this series, only semantically significant variants are here noted. Spelling variations or slight changes in word order are ignored. All deviations from the readings of MS, however, are accounted for here.

235 furent. MS: furent furent, due to diplography.

386 sejours. MS: secours, due to spelling error.

391 la. So MS. F: le also gives good sense.

461 qu’une. MS: cune, due to spelling error — homonym.

485 lors. So MS. F: hors. Either gives good sense. Hors would render the line’s sense as “so that I went out of that prison.”

667 Venrez. MS: Verrez, due to spelling error.

756 parfaire. So MS. F, M, B, D, E: faire.

870 yvres. MS: yures, due to spelling error.

874 forfaites. So F. MS repeats parfaites from previous line.

894 Dont je me vorray bien garder. Line missing in MS, which repeats line 893. Line supplied from F.

902 invisible. So MS. F, M, B: nuisible, giving an interesting reading here. Nuisible would render the line’s sense as “your annoying thought.”

1078 ferez. MS: feirs, due to spelling error.

1081 Einsi. MS: Eins, due to spelling error.

1149 accompaingnié. A: accompaignie, due to missing nasal stroke.

1214 s’ahonte. MS: lahonte, due to spelling error.

1227 setisme. MS: sisieme, due to miswriting.

1257 oeuvres. MS: ouvres, due to spelling error.

1265 Aprés Prudence se seoit. Line missing in MS, which repeats line 1264. Line supplied from F.

1372 m’agenoillai. So F. MS: agelongnai, due to miswriting.

1421 m’avoit. MS: mavoit mavoit, due to diplography.

1487 si. MS: ci, due to spelling error — homonym.

1493 assis. So F. MS: rassis, the rhyme word of the next line. Eyeskip error.

1564 tant vous. So F. MS: omits tant.

1630 avons. MS: avos, due to missing nasal stroke.

1640 on scet. So MS. F, M, B, D, E: ou soit.

1647 trieges. MS: rieges, due to spelling error.

1734 LE JUGE. So F. MS omits heading.

1813 Comment. MS: commene, due to spelling error.

1821 face. MS: facent, due to spelling error.

1846 querir. So H, who emends metri causa. MS: querre, due to spelling error.

1891 Fusicien. MS: Fusitien, due to spelling error.

1913 jugoit. MS: jugent, due to spelling error.

1929 philosophes. MS: philophes, due to spelling error.

1983 oy. MS: jos, due to spelling error.

2014 prouver. So F, H. MS: trouver, repeated from line 2013 due to eyeskip error.

2045 est. MS: en, due to spelling error.

2108 Que heü. So F. MS omits heü.

2151 fourches. MS: fouches, due to spelling error.

2161 Aussi. MS: Iussi, due to spelling error.

2162 point. MS: poit, due to missing nasal stroke.

2170 par. MS: par par, due to diplography.

2173 Que a moy. So MS. All manuscripts except M give Qu’ami, which also gives good sense.

2189 qu’Amours. So MS. F, M, B, D, E: qu’amis, which gives inferior sense.

2195 Pais. MS: Pas, due to spelling error.

2213 prouver. So all other manuscripts. MS: premier.

2276 fent. MS: fant, due to spelling error.

2330 confonderay. MS: confimderay, due to spelling error.

2341 Amis. MS: Ainis, due to spelling error.

2349 honnourablement. MS: honnourablemmt, due to spelling error.

2371 nullement. MS: nullemet, due to missing nasal stroke.

2381 s’avisa. So MS, B, D. All other manuscripts give savanca, which also gives good sense.

2448 S’estent. MS: se sent, due to spelling error.

2465 Et en. MS: Est en, due to spelling error.

2476 S’elle. MS: Celle, due to spelling error — homonym.

2573 par voie. MS: pa voie, due to spelling error.

2628 le. So MS. All other manuscripts, me, which renders the line’s sense as “listen to me.”

2674 martire. So MS, E. All other manuscripts give matire, which also gives good sense.

2688 Dont je vous di que la pointue. MS repeats this line.

2695 vueil. MS: voult. The grammar of the sentence requires a noun form.

2700 loiaument. MS: loiament, due to spelling error.

2785 Quanqu’elle. MS: Quenquelle, due to spelling error.

2924–25 L’ACTEUR. MS: omits heading here, which is supplied from F, per H.

2932 Chastelainne. MS: chastolainne, due to spelling error.

2982 Apparent. MS: appernt, due to spelling error.

3045 retrouvez. So MS. F, B, D, E: recouvrez.

3172 nus. MS: mus, due to spelling error.

3214 aidier. MS: aididier, due to spelling error.

3215 nostre. So MS. All other manuscripts give vostre. Either reading gives good sense.

3249 tourbla. So MS. All other manuscripts give senfla, which gives good sense and yields a richer rhyme.

3315 couchié. So MS. F, M, D, E: touchié, which gives inferior but possible sense.

3386 de retraire. So H. MS: le contraire, which gives poor sense. F, M, B, D, E: le retraire, which also gives poor sense.

3389 nostre. So MS, B. All other manuscripts give vostre. Either reading gives good sense.

3420 notre. So MS. All other manuscripts give vostre.

3426 Tandis com. MS: toudis.

3435 s’il vient. MS: il bien, due to spelling error.

3475 Juges. MS: Jugiez, due to spelling error.

3590 poins fort me. So F. MS: poins ci me, which as H points out, gives inferior sense.

3749 bien le savez. So MS. All other manuscripts give vous le, which gives equally good sense.

3887, 3889 Elle. MS and all manuscripts give Il. These masculine pronouns to the lady must be miswritings.

3891 nul tort. So all manuscripts except MS. MS: accort, probably due to a miswriting.

3913 des dames. So all manuscripts except MS. MS: which was des des due to diplography.

3914 honneur. MS: bonneur, due to spelling error.

3948 la voie. MS: la vie, due to spelling error.

3984 dou prouver. So all manuscripts except MS. MS: dou premier, a miswriting.

4058 estoient. MS: estioient, due to spelling error.

4089 Beniveillance. MS: bniveillance, due to spelling error.

4121 chaucié. MS: chauciet, due to spelling error.

4124 sont. MS: son, due to spelling error.

4127 espuisier. MS: espursier, due to spelling error.

4134 oeuvre. MS: ouevre, due to spelling error.

4155 apperent. MS: apperet, due to spelling error.

4185 a un. MS: aa un, due to spelling error.