"I DO, I DO": MEDIEVAL MODELS OF MARRIAGE AND CHOICE OF PARTNERS IN MARIE DE FRANCE'S "LE FRAISNE"

Romanic Review, Nov 2001 by Hurtig, Dolliann Margaret

Finally, what is Marie saying about marriage and the choice of partners in the twelfth century? She presents two sides of the question and satisfactorily comes to terms with the duality of the poem's ending. In "Le Fraisne" the device of twins is a dynamic medium to present both the traditional and the ecclesiastical way of looking at marriage. Chantal Marechal notes how the wedding of Fraisne to Gurun reconciles opposites: "Au terme de l'aventure, en accord avec l'evolution de la pensee religieuse du temps de Bernard de Clairvaux, l'amour humain spiritualise n'est plus en conflit avec l'enseignement de l'Eglise-Gurun et Fresne peuvent etre a la fois amants et epoux" (137). Le Fraisne's mariage de convenance is a true mariage d'amour. It is as if by a miracle a branch from a tree begins a new growth, a new genealogy, implanted on free choice, imbedded in holiness and sacrament, yet nonetheless still rooted in tradition.

The final image we have of Le Fraisne is a noble one, that of a queen reigning over the festivities of her wedding day:

Pur la joie de la meschine,

ki de belte semble reine,

qu'il uni sifaitement trovee,

unt mult grant joie demenee. (525-528)

[The joy of the maiden,

whose beauty rivaled that of a queen

resonated the joy of her family

who had found her as if by a miracle.]

From an abandoned child to the bride of a powerful feudal lord is a significant rise in feudal society. One wonders if Marie de France did not desire all young noblewomen to be queen of their own wedding days, freely choosing their marriage partners and bringing into their lives the magical dimension of fairy tale. In "Le Fraisne" she breaks through women's silent acceptance of the status quo by hinting at the way things ought to be, and thus, through her craft, ingeniously subverts twelfth-century marriage tradition.

Louisiana Tech University

1. Quotations from Warnke (ed.), Lais de Marie de France; translations from The Lais of Marie de France, trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby.

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