Marie de France

Marie de France (də fräNs), fl. 1155–90, poet. Born in France, she spent her adult life in England in aristocratic circles and wrote in Anglo-Norman. She is best known for some dozen lais; several are of Celtic origin, and some are Arthurian.

Bibliography

See Lais, ed. by A. Ewert (1944). See translations by J. L. Weston (1900), E. Rickert (1901), and E. Mason (1911); study by E. J. Mickel, Jr. (1974).

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Marie de France

(flourished 12th century) French poet, the earliest known woman poet of France. She wrote verse narratives on romantic and magical themes and may have inspired the musical lais of the later troubadours. She probably wrote in England and may have based her fables on an English source; her verses were dedicated to a “noble” king, either Henry II of England or his son. She also wrote a collection of fables, the Ysopet.