Senshu University Library, MS2
Roman de la Rose

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Le Roman de la rose (The Romance of the Rose) is a medieval French allegorical poem of the thirteenth century and deals with idealized love, using personification and the complex imagery which were well-known as conventions romance poetry of courtly love.

Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first part of the Roman (about 4,000 lines) in the first half of the thirteenth century. Idleness admits the lover to a garden where he finds Courtesy, Sweet Looks, Riches, and Fair Welcome. A beautiful rose exits as symbol of the idealized beloved in the center of the garden. Cupid shots with an arrow the love who is instructed in the pleasures and pains of courtly love. When the lover attempts to reach the rose, he is driven away by Danger, Shame, Pity, and Slander.

Jean de Meung later added the second part of the Roman (about 18,000 lines). Guillaume’s idealism is replaced by Nature’s doctrine that love is merely the means of procreation.

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Americana
Britannica
The Oxford Companion to French Literature