Roman de la Rose

Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose) is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision. It was written in two stages by two authors: Guillaume de Lorris composed the first part (4,058 verses) around 1230, and Jean de Meun composed the second part (17,722 additional verses) around 1275.

Quotes

Part I

Maintes genz dient que en songes
N'a se fables non e mençonges;
Mais l'en puet teus songes songier
Qui ne sont mie mençongier,
Ainz sont après bien aparani;
Si en puis bien traire a garant
Un auctor qui ot non Macrobes,
Qui ne tint pas songes a lobes,
Ançois escrist l'avision
Qui avint au roi Scipion.
Quiconques cuide ne qui die
Que soit folor e musardie
De croire que songes aveigne,
Qui ce voudra, por fol m'en teigne;
Car endroit moi ai je fiance
Que songes est senefiance
Des biens as genz e des enuiz;
Car li plusor songent de nuiz
Maintes choses covertement
Que l'en voit puis apertement.
- Many men say that there is nothing in dreams but fables and lies, but one may have dreams which are not deceitful, whose import becomes quite clear afterward. We may take as witness an author named Macrobius, who did not take dreams as trifles, for he wrote of the vision which came to King Scipio. Whoever thinks or says that to believe in a dream's coming true is folly and stupidity may, if he wishes, think me a fool; but, for my part, I am convinced that a dream signifies the good and evil that come to men, for most men at night dream many things in a hidden way which may afterward be seen openly.
  - Lines 1–20, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

Ou vintieme an de mon aage,
Ou point qu'Amors prent le paage
Des juenes genz, couchiez m'estoie
Une nuit, si con je soloie,
E me dormoie mout forment;
Si vi un songe en mon dormant
Qui mout fu biaus e mout me plot;
Mais en cel songe onques rien n'ot
Qui trestot avenu ne soit
Si con li songes recensoit.
Or vueil cel songe rimeier,
Por voz cuers plus faire esgaier,
Qu'Amors le me prie e comande.
E se nus ne nule demande
Coment je vueil que ïi romanz
Soit apelez que je comenz,
Ce est li Romanz de la Rose,
Ou l'Art d'Amors est toute enclose.
La matire en est bone e nueve;
Or doint Deus qu'en gré le reçueve
Cele por cui je l'ai empris;
C'est cele qui tant a de pris
E tant est dine d'astre amee
Qu'el doit estre Rose clamee.
- In the twentieth year of my life, at the time when Love exacts his tribute from young people, I lay down one night, as usual, and slept very soundly. During my sleep I saw a very beautiful and pleasing dream; but in this dream was nothing which did not happen almost as the dream told it. Now I wish to tell this dream in rhyme, the more to make your hearts rejoice, since Love both begs and commands me to do so. And if anyone asks what I wish the romance to be called, which I begin here, it is the Romance of the Rose, in which the whole art of love is contained. Its matter is good and new; and God grant that she for whom I have undertaken it may receive it with grace. It is she who is so precious and so worthy to be loved that she should be called Rose.
  - Lines 21–44, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

Li Tens qui s'en vait nuir e jor,
Senz repos prendre e senz sejor,
E qui de nos se part e emble
Si celeement qu'il nos semble
Qu'il s'arest adès en un point,
E il ne s'i areste point,
Ainz ne fine de trespasser,
Que l'en ne puet neïs penser
Queus tens ce est qui est presenz,
Sel demandez as clers lisanz;
Car ainz que l'en l'eüst pensé
Seroient ja troi tens passé.
- Time, who goes away night and day, without rest and without interruption, who parts from us and steals away so quickly, seems to us to be always stopped at one place, but he never stops there at all. He never ceases passing away, so that no man, even if you ask learned clerks, can tell you what time it is that is present, for before he had thought, three moments would already have passed.
  - Lines 361–372, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

Entre ces boutons en eslui
Un si trés bel qu'envers celui
Nul des autres rien ne prisai,
Puis que je l'oi bien avisé,
Car une color l'enlumine
Qui est si vermeille e si fine
Con Nature la pot plus faire.
De fueilles i ot quatre paire,
Que Nature par grant maistire
I ot assises tire a tire;
La queue est droite come jons,
E par desus siet li boutons
Si qu'il ne cline ne ne pent.
L'odor de lui entor s'espant:
La soatume qui en ist
Toute la place replenist.
E quant jou senti si flairier,
Je n'oi talent de repairier,
Ainz m'aprochasse por le prendre,
Se j'i osasse la main tendre.
- Among these buds I singled out one that was so very beautiful that, after I had examined it carefully, I thought that none of the others was worth anything beside it; it glowed with a color as red and as pure as the best that Nature can produce, and she had placed around it four pairs of leaves, with great skill, one after the other. The stem was straight as a sapling, and the bud sat on the top, neither bent nor inclined. Its odor spread all around; the sweet perfume that rose from it filled the entire area. And when I smelled its exhalation, I had no power to withdraw, but would have approached to take it if I had dared stretch out my hand to it.
  - Lines 1655–1674, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

Li deus d'Amors lors m'encharja,
Tot ensi con vos orroiz ja,
Mot a mot ses comandemenz:
Bien les devise cist romanz.
Qui amer viaut or i entende,
Que li romanz des or amende;
Des or le fait bon escouter,
S'il est qui le sache conter,
Car la fin dou songe est mout bele
E la matire en est novele;
Qui dou songe la fin orra,
Je vos di bien que il porra
Des jeus d'Amors assez aprendre,
Por quoi il vueille tant atendre
Que j'espoigne e que j'enromance
Dou songe la senefiance:
La verité, qui est coverte,
Vos sera lores toute aperte
Quant espondre m'orroiz le songe,
Car il n'i a mot de mençonge.
- The God of Love then charged me, word by word, with his commandments; this romance portrays them well. Let him who wishes to love give his attention to it, for the romance improves from this point on. From now on one will do well to listen to it, if he is one who knows how to recount it, for the end of the dream is very beautiful, and its matter is new. I tell you that he who will hear the end of the dream can learn a great deal about the games of Love, provided that he wishes to wait while I tell the tale in French and explain the dream's significance. The truth, which is hidden, will be quite open to you when you hear me explain the dream, for it doesn't contain a lying word.
  - Lines 2057–2076, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

Grands biens ne vient pas en poi d'ore;
II y con vient poine et demore.
- Great riches come not in a day;
  Labour is seemly and delay.
  - Line 2111, tr. Harbottle (1904)

Grant joie en ton cuer demenras
De la biauté que tu verras;
Et saches que du regarder
Feras ton cuer frire et larder,
Et tout adès en regardant
Aviveras le feu ardant.
Qui ce qu'il aime plus regarde,
Plus alume son cuer et l'arde;
Cil art, alume et fait flamer
Le feu qui les gens fait amer.
- As a result of the beauty that you see, great joy will dwell in your heart; know, too, that by looking you will make your heart fry and burn, and as you look you will always quicken the burning fire. The more anyone looks upon what he loves, the more he lights and burns his heart. This fat lights and keeps blazing the fire that makes men love.
  - Lines 2425-2432, tr. Dahlberg (1995)
    - The more a man gazes on what he loves, the more he sets fire to his heart and bastes it with bacon fat. (tr. Horgan, 1994)

Lors feras chatiaus en Espaigne.
- Then castles wilt thou build in Spain.
  - Line 2530 (ed. 1878), tr. Harbottle (1904)
  - Cf. Charles d'Orléans, Rondel, CIX: Tout à part moi en mon penser m'encios, / Et fais chasteaulx en Espaigne et en France ("Wrapped in my thoughts, myself forgot, / I castles build in Spain and France")

Et plus en gré sont recéu
Li biens dont l'en a mal éu.
- More happiness it brings to gain
  Those blessings that have caused us pain.
  - Line 2689, tr. Harbottle (1904)

Si con j'oi la rose apressiee,
Un poi la trovai engroissiee,
E vi qu'ele estoit puis creüe
Que je ne l'oi de près veüe;
La rose auques s'eslargissoit
Par amont; si m'abelissoit
Ce qu'el n'iere pas si overte
Que la graine fust descoverte;
Ançois estoit encore enclose
Entre les fueilles de la rose,
Qui amont droites se levoient
E la place dedenz emploient,
Si ne pooit paroir la graine,
Por la rose qui estoit pleine.
Ele fu, Deus la beneïe,
Assez plus bele espaneïe
Qu'el n'iere avant e plus vermeille.
- As I approached the rose, I found it somewhat enlarged, and I saw that it had grown since the time when I had seen it from close up. It was a little enlarged at the top; and I was pleased that it was not so open that the seed was revealed. It was still enclosed within the rose leaves, which raised it straight up and filled the space within, so that the seed, with which the rose was full, could not appear. God bless it, it was much more beautifully open and redder than it had been before.
  - Lines 3357–3373, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

Que l’en ne puet fere espervier
En nule guise d’ung busart.
- One can in no way make a sparrow hawk out of a buzzard.
- Lines 3839-3840, tr. Dahlberg (1995)

S'ele est cortoise et debonnaire?
El n'est de nulle riens certaine,
Ains met les amans en grant paine,
Et se fait d'aus dame et mestresse,
Mains en déçoit par sa promesse.
- Though Hope be courteous and debonair,
  She's never certain. Although she may be
  Lady and mistress of all folk in love,
  She puts them in great pain, and oft deceives
  By promise false which she will never keep.
  - Lines 4050-4054, tr. Robbins (1962)

Part II

Car ausinc bien sunt amoretes
Sous buriaus comme sous brunetes.
- For full as oft is Cupid's wound
  'Neath fustian as 'neath velvet found.
  - Line 4569, tr. Harbottle (1904)
  - Compare:
    - For al so welle wole love be sette
      Under ragges as riche rochette;
      And eke as wel be amourettes
      In mournying blak, as bright burnettes.
      - For all so well will love be set
        Under rags as rich rotchet;
        And eke as well by amorets
        In mourning black, as bright burnets.
        Geoffrey Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose, line 4753

Tous jors aime qui est amis.
- Who is a true friend loves for ever.
  - Line 8831, tr. Harbottle (1904)

Car par l'escript que nous avons,
Les fais des anciens savons;
Si les en devons mercier,
Et loer et regracier.
- For we know the deeds of the ancients by the writings that we have, and we should give them thanks and praise for what they have left.
  - Line 9669 (ed. Méon), tr. Dahlberg (1995)
  - Compare:
    - Than mote we to bokes that we finde,
      Through which that olde thinges been in minde.
      And to the doctrine of these olde wyse,
      Yeve credence, in every skilful wyse,
      That tellen of these olde appreved stories,
      Of holinesse, or regnes, of victories,
      Of love, of hate, of other sundry thinges,
      Of whiche I may not maken rehersinges.
      And if that olde bokes were a-weye,
      Y-loren were of remembraunce the keye.
      Wel oghte us than honouren and beleve
      These bokes, ther we han non other preve.
      - Then may we [go] to books that we find,
        Through which that old things be in mind,
        And to the doctrine of these old wise
        Give credence, in every skilful wise,
        That tell of these old approved stories,
        Of holiness, of reigns, of victories,
        Of love, of hate, of other sundry things,
        Of which I may not make rehearsings.
        And if that old books were away
        Lost were of remembrance the key.
        Well ought we then to honour and believe
        These books, where we have no other proof.
        Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women, Prologue, lines 17–28

Et sans fol ne puet nus hons vivre,
Tant cum il voille Amor ensivre.
- The wisest man shall foolish prove
  When he doth go in search of Love.
  - Line 10,004, tr. Harbottle (1904)

Mès nature ne puet mentir.
- But nature cannot lie.
  - Line 14,626 [variant: peut], tr. Harbottle (1904)
  - Cf. "Like father, like son"

C’est chose qui moult me deplaist,
Quand poule parle et coq se taist.
- It is a thing very displeasing to me when the hen speaks and the cock is silent.
  - Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922) p. 893

Quotes about Roman de la Rose

The greatest of all the medieval romances.
- Thomas F. X. Noble, "The Romance of the Rose", Lecture 29 in Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, 2nd Edition (Chantilly, Virginia: The Teaching Company, 2004), p. 206

The Roman de la Rose, or Romance of the Rose tells a lengthy tale of a wistful young lover who tries to win his lady's love and prove his worthiness at the same time whilst being sad about it a lot. [...] There are a few beautifully illuminated manuscripts which show the hapless lover attempting to overcome obstacles to get to the object of his affection. He first needs to get past a number of virtues and vices personified who either attempt to help or hinder him. [...] The final scene has our hero describing an amazing array of euphemisms for deflowering a virgin. The Lover reaches the tower, but the gate is closed and needs him to push his key in the lock. The entry is too narrow. Images sometimes show twin towers with a very narrow door between them which suggest the legs of a lady and her opening between. Early on in the story, we see that Nature had given the Lover a staff which he polished in the hope of using it shortly.
- Rosalie Gilbert, The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women (2020)

References

T. B. Harbottle; P. H. Dalbiac (eds.) Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian, 2nd ed. (1904), pp. 10, 30, 53, 158, 178, 204, 216
Karl D. Uitti, "Cele [qui] doit estre Rose clamee: Guillaume's Intentionality", in Rethinking the "Romance of the Rose": Text, Image, Reception, ed. Kevin Brownlee and Sylvia Huot (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), pp. 39–64
Charles Dahlberg, trans., The Romance of the Rose: Third Edition (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995)
Francis Horgan, trans. The Romance of the Rose (Oxford University Press, 1994)
Harry W. Robbins, trans. The Romance of the Rose (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1962)
Max Kaluza (ed.) The Romaunt of the Rose, from the unique Glasgow MS, parallel with its original, Le Roman de la Rose, Pt. 1 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, 1891)
De V. Payen-Payne (ed.) French Idioms and Proverbs, 4th ed. (London: David Nutt, 1905)

External links

Wikipedia

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Roman de la Rose

Le Roman de la Rose, vol. 1 (1878), vol. 2 (1878), vol. 3 (1878), vol. 4 (1879), vol. 5 (1880)