CHRETIEN DE TROYES, a native of Champagne, and one of the famous French mediaeval poets. We possess very few details as to his life, and opinion differs as to the exact date to be assigned to his poems. We know that he wrote Le Chevalier de la Charrette at the command of Marie, countess of Champagne (the daughter of Louis VII. and Eleanor of Aquitaine, married to the count of Champagne in 1164), and Le Conte du Graal, or Perceval for Philip, count of Flanders, guardian of the young king, Philip Augustus from I18o to I 182. As Chretien refers to the story as the best tale told au tort royal it was probably composed during the regency. It was left unfinished, and later continued by three writers, de Denain, Gerbert de Montreuil and Manessier. The second of these says definitely that Chretien died before he could complete his poem. The extant works in their chronological order are, Erec, Cliges, Le Chevalier de la Char rette (Lancelot), Le Chevalier an Lion (Yvain) and Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) all dealing with Arthurian legend. Be sides these he himself mentions a Tristan, and certain translations from Ovid's Ars amatoria, and Metamorphoses. A portion of this last was found by Gaston Paris, included in the translation of Ovid by Chretien Legouais ; of the Tristan no trace has yet been dis covered. There is also a poem, Guillaume d'Angleterre, the author ship of which is a matter of debate. Prof. Foerster claimed it as by Chretien, and included it in his edition of the poems, but Gaston Paris never accepted it.
Chretien's poems enjoyed widespread favour, and of the three most popular (Erec, Yvain and Perceval) there exist old Norse translations, while the first two were admirably rendered into German by Hartmann von Aue. There is an English translation of the Yvain, Ywain and Gawain, and there are Welsh versions of all three stories, though their exact relation to the French is still a matter of debate. Chretien's style is easy and graceful, he is analytic but not dramatic, in depth of thought and power of characterization he is decidedly inferior to Wolfram von Eschen bach, and as a poet he is probably to be ranked below Thomas, the author of Tristan, and the translator of Thomas, Gottfried von Strassburg. Much that has been claimed as characteristic of his work has been shown by M. Willmotte to be merely reproductions of literary conceits employed by his predecessors. In the words of so competent a judge as M. J. Bedier he appears to have been "not so much a creative artist as a clever compiler" and this prob ably represents what will be the final verdict on his work.