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The Romance of the Rose: Le Roman de la Rose
A translation into English by A. S. Kline.
Published with illuminations, courtesy of the British Library.
Jean de Meung (c1240-c1305) wrote a long continuation (dated to between 1268 and 1285 by internal references) to this, the original Roman de la Rose. Jean claimed that it had been conceived by Guillaume de Lorris (c1200?-c1240?) some forty years earlier. Guillaume, it is presumed, came from the village of Lorris, near Orléans, in France; otherwise nothing is known of his life. Clearly he was educated and literate, and therefore likely to have been of the minor aristocracy. He produced in this Romance a dream allegory of courtly love, in a poetic, reflective and elegant style, but his world-view is also shrewd, with his reflections on love partly derived from Ovid’s Ars Amatoria: The Art of Love. Here Guillaume’s work is allowed to stand free of the later work, as an epitome of the allegorical style and a fine development of the courtly tradition of ‘fin amour’.
This and other texts available from Poetry in Translation.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2019
About the author
Guillaume de Lorris
83 books27 followersGuillaume de Lorris (fl. 1230) was a French scholar and poet, and was the author of the first section of the Romance of the Rose. Little is known about him, other than that he wrote the earlier section of the poem around 1230, and that the work was completed forty years later by Jean de Meun.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 16, 2026
The Romance of the Rose (Le Roman de la Rose) is a masterpiece of medieval poetry. Written in the 13th century, the story recounts a dream in which the narrator, ‘The Lover’, finds the Garden of Pleasure and is let inside by Lady Idleness. Upon seeing a reflection of a rosebud, he becomes infatuated with it and is then hunted down by the God of Love and shot by his arrows, with Love putting his heart under lock and key. He tries to get close to the rose with help from friendly figures like Fair Welcome, but is driven away by Reluctance and by Jealousy, who shuts the rose inside a fortified enclosure, forcing The Lover and his allies to break in and claim his beloved.
This poem was one of the most influential medieval poems, with roughly 300 surviving handwritten manuscripts, and was one of the most read stories in England throughout the late 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. It inspired Jean de Meun to write a further 17,724 lines to ‘finish’ the tale, and it influenced the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who was responsible for translating a portion of the poem into Middle English.
It is a look into the elite culture of the 13th century. The walled garden stands for courtly society; therefore, when we enter it, we get to see the ideals of the nobility: an emphasis on beauty, leisure/pleasure, dancing, youth, and manners. The Rose in the poem obviously represents the narrators lady-love, and the figures around her, like Danger, Shame, Courtesy, and Idleness, tell us that love in this age was a system of social pressures and permissions. It gives you a sense of how desire, status, and female reputation were imagined in that culture.
Outside of being a scholarly text, it is also just good poetry. It is chock-full of beautiful imagery and a masterful use of allegory, and the translator (A. S. Kline) has done an excellent job of ensuring the octosyllabic rhyming couplets read and flow very naturally. It was also surprisingly funny. When Love is giving The Lover advice on how to woo a lady, he says:
That got an actual laugh out of me. This text is is exciting, good-humoured, and offers some good advice. Outside of just telling men to lace their boots tightly, it also seems respectful of the Rose (perhaps not respectful of all women, as was the culture; of Old Age: “No great loss were it if she’d died”), as the Lover is told to be respectful and not to ‘pluck’ a beautiful rose-woman, but to let her ‘grow’:
Overall, this is both a tool for research into medieval elite culture and a genuinely enjoyable poem in its own right. It is historically significant, formally accomplished, and very, very fun!
This poem was one of the most influential medieval poems, with roughly 300 surviving handwritten manuscripts, and was one of the most read stories in England throughout the late 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. It inspired Jean de Meun to write a further 17,724 lines to ‘finish’ the tale, and it influenced the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who was responsible for translating a portion of the poem into Middle English.
It is a look into the elite culture of the 13th century. The walled garden stands for courtly society; therefore, when we enter it, we get to see the ideals of the nobility: an emphasis on beauty, leisure/pleasure, dancing, youth, and manners. The Rose in the poem obviously represents the narrators lady-love, and the figures around her, like Danger, Shame, Courtesy, and Idleness, tell us that love in this age was a system of social pressures and permissions. It gives you a sense of how desire, status, and female reputation were imagined in that culture.
Outside of being a scholarly text, it is also just good poetry. It is chock-full of beautiful imagery and a masterful use of allegory, and the translator (A. S. Kline) has done an excellent job of ensuring the octosyllabic rhyming couplets read and flow very naturally. It was also surprisingly funny. When Love is giving The Lover advice on how to woo a lady, he says:
You should show a fine laced shoe,
Or boot, and always fresh and new.
And make sure they fit you tight,
So fools will wonder every night
How on earth, once you are gone,
You ever get them off and on.
That got an actual laugh out of me. This text is is exciting, good-humoured, and offers some good advice. Outside of just telling men to lace their boots tightly, it also seems respectful of the Rose (perhaps not respectful of all women, as was the culture; of Old Age: “No great loss were it if she’d died”), as the Lover is told to be respectful and not to ‘pluck’ a beautiful rose-woman, but to let her ‘grow’:
A fool of me you’d have made
If e’er the rosebud you betrayed,
Plucking it from the bush on sight,
For there, by nature, it lives of right.
A villain you are to so demand,
Let it grow, at nature’s command.
Overall, this is both a tool for research into medieval elite culture and a genuinely enjoyable poem in its own right. It is historically significant, formally accomplished, and very, very fun!
October 3, 2020
It starts to get real good at the end.
January 22, 2021
An easier read than I thought. It's tiresome sometimes, but I have this feeling in all poetry I read, so (it might be) mea culpa. A good understand of where our thoughts on love came from. It's all Hollywood and romantic comedies stand for. Love is a god, which takes us off our feet, makes us suffer, etc.
On the literary look it's a masterpiece, undeniably.
On the literary look it's a masterpiece, undeniably.
March 7, 2025
pensum
kinda liked it
kinda liked it
April 19, 2025
I’m sure the translation was fine, but I didn’t understand this at all. It’s quoted in literature surrounding the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, but I don’t see how this poem was such a hot topic of conversation—so racy that they talked about it into the fifteenth century. Kind of unbelievable. But the verses seemed to have a flowery Middle Ages vibe while also rhyming. So kudos to the translator.
oops. turns out that i read the wrong one. i will read part two next and maybe I’ll understand the buzzing around this book.
oops. turns out that i read the wrong one. i will read part two next and maybe I’ll understand the buzzing around this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews