Et pui conmencha a canter: refrains, motets and melody in the thirteenth-century narrative Renart le nouvel

Abstract

In many surviving thirteenth-century romances, short segments of lyric poetry, called ‘refrains’ by present-day scholars, interrupt the narrative with the implication of song. In the romance Renart le nouvel, attributed to Jacquemart Giélée (fl. 1290), refrains take their place among a wide variety of literary registers and forms. Renart le nouvel is a late derivative of a long and international tradition of adapting, elaborating and making reference to the stories from the Roman de Renart. The Roman de Renart refers to a collection of approximately fifteen Old French verse narratives, written between 1174 and 1205, that recount the exploits of the cunning fox Renart and various other anthropomorphized members of the animal kingdom.