CHRÉTIEN (CHRESTIEN) de TROYES. - Little biographical information is available about this famous courtly poet, who lived at the court of Champagne and whose chief literary activity must have taken place between 1160 and 1175. He knew and elaborated classical material (especially Ovidian), as various titles of his works that have not survived demonstrate; but he was more attracted by the adventurous world of Arthurian tales, to which he, taking his cue from the Historia regum Britanniae versified in Wace's Roman de Brut, gave new life and new fame.

There are accordingly listed by him an Erec et Enide, a Lancelot, an Yvain and a Perceval, inspired by the Arturi regis amboges pulcerrimae, and a Cligés of Greco-Byzantine inspiration, though set in the Arthurian world. Of these poems (all in octosyllables with rhymed couplets), simply erotic and adventurous, some have spoken as of "thesis novels", others have seen in them recondite and complicated allegorical meanings; certainly C. is not content merely to narrate beautiful tales, but also wishes to pose and discuss delicate psychological problems (the arising of amorous passion, the relationship between love and chivalry, the nature and demands of conjugal fidelity). And in any case he writes as a great artist, with a rich, fluent, colorful language and with a sure mastery of his complicated plots.

Although left unfinished at 7,000 verses, the romance Perceval deserves special emphasis, where the adventurous element is mingled with the religious one, in a form destined for a long and varied fortune in later literatures. It concerns a young man who, kept by force far from the chivalric world, is finally received into it, and is led, from adventure to adventure, to find the Grail, that is, the sacred vessel in which it was said the blood from Christ's side had been collected.

Bibliography

BIBL.: Works: C. von T., Sämtliche erhaltenen Werke, edited by W. Foerster, 4 vols., comprising the Cligés, the Yvain, the Erec, the Lancelot and the Guillaume d'Angleterre, of uncertain attribution. Halle 1884-89: Ch. Potvin, Perceval le gallois ou le Conte du Graal, 6 vols., also comprising the prose romance and the continuations, Mons 1866. Studies: G. Cohen, C. de T. et son oeuvre, Paris 1931: R. R. Bezzola, Le sens de l'aventure et de l'amour (C. de T.), ibid. 1947.

Ruggero Maria Ruggieri

@incollection{ec3_chretien_chrestien_de_troyes, author = {Ruggieri, Ruggero Maria}, title = {Chrétien (Chrestien) de Troyes}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1565--1566}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/chretien-chrestien-de-troyes} }

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