ADAM de la HALLE. - French trouvère, b. near Arras in 1220, d. in Naples in 1287, also known as le bossu d'Arras.
Initially destined for the priesthood, he married, then abandoned his wife and his native city and resumed his studies. He followed Count Robert II of Arras to the court of Charles of Anjou. Of his poetic works, the best known is Le feu de la feuillée (c. 1262), also called feu d'Adam or feu du mariage, which is the oldest French vernacular comedy. In two large scenes, separated by a féerie, the trouvère recounts his own misfortunes and ridicules various inhabitants of Arras, women, medicines, relics, friars, and ecclesiastical customs. At the court of Naples, A. composed, set to music, and performed in 1283 Le feu de Robin et de Marion, which is the first pastoral comedy and, one might say, the first comic opera. Le feu du pèlerin is perhaps erroneously attributed to him.