Cligès

Cligès is a poem by the medieval French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from around 1176. It is the second of five Arthurian Romances; Erec and Enide, Cligès, Yvain, Lancelot and Perceval. The poem tells the story of the knight Cligès and his love for his uncle's wife, Fenice. Because of the story's de-romanticized depiction of adultery, it has been called a criticism or parody of the Tristan and Isolde romances .

Background

Cligès has come down to us through seven manuscripts and various fragments. The poem comprises 6,664 octosyllables in rhymed couplets. A 15th century prose version also exists. The first modern edition of Cligès was in 1884 by Wendelin Foerster.

There are many stylistic techniques that set Chrétien de Troyes and his work Cligès apart from his contemporaries and their work. Chrétien used many Latin writing techniques such as nature topos, portraiture, conjointure, amplificato and interpretatio to convey a realistic romance story.

Cligès can be better understood by dividing the text into two parts, or two nearly separate stories. The first story consists of Cligès's father's adventures and the second story consists of Cligès's adventures. Cligès scholar Z.P. Zaddy supports the dual story approach, but also divides the text even further. Zaddy creates a new structure where the two stories are divided into 8 episodes. This approach is intended to make the text read more dramatically.