La Prison Amoureuse

Book excerpt: Though best known for his "Chronicles," Froissart was also one of the great poets of the 14th century. The first and perhaps most important disciple of Machaut, he produced courtly narrative "dits," an enormous Arthurian romance ("M liador"), and numerous lyrics. La Prison Amoureuse is probably the most important of his narrative "dits." Inspired by Machaut's "Le Voir Dit," the Prison presents a literary correspondence between a poet and patron, whose names are hidden behind allegorical pseudonyms. The Prison cleverly intercalates the men's prose letters to each other, as well as their lyric compositions, into its narrative frame. Critics have read the work as everything from pure fancy and courtly fluff to a recreation of the letters exchanged between Froissart and his patron, Wenceslas of Luxemburg, during the latter's captivity of 1372. The very difficulty of interpretation makes the "Prison "of importance to scholars interested in the relationship between artists and patrons, and the place of literature in society, during the Hundred Years War. This new edition also provides the first English translation of a major work by a writer who almost certainly knew and influenced Chaucer.