Melion and Biclarel - University of Liverpool

Introduction
completeness of this morality is emphasised by Biclarel, in which the second
husband, having been presented with the hero’s ‘death’ as a fait accompli, is
neither attacked nor punished: ‘Riducendo questo personaggio ad una fuggevola
comparsa, l’autore di RC [sic] mira, evidentemente, a scaricare ogni
responsabilità sulla donna. Rendendola autrice anche materiale del tradimento ed
espondendo lei sola alla furia vendicatrice di Biclarel, egli persegue, un po’
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rozzamente, l’intento di creare una figura di “cattiva” a tutto tondo’. There are
two separate attacks on the second husband in the Old Norse Bisclaret, which
adds a new dimension to the narrative for, after disposing of the werwolf, ‘biuggi
sa kono hans er lengi hafði hænni unnat’ (‘that man who had long loved her came
to live with his wife’, pp. 90-91) and on the occasion of his attack is ‘Rikolega
klæddr ok Riddaralega’ (‘richly arrayed in knightly fashion’, pp. 92-3), which
suggests that the lover has gained both the ‘widow’ and her inheritance, and
serves to contrast the knightly clothes with his unknightly behaviour.
The narrators of Melion and Biclarel transform Marie’s early neutrality
towards the wife, who later condemns herself, into unambiguous misogyny,
providing explicit morals and making the poems function to a greater or lesser
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extent as exempla. Melion reveals itself to be a corrupted Breton lay:
notwithstanding the elements which link it with the archetype (the Arthurian
setting; a strong supernatural flavour; the generic self-identification), Lucien
Foulet sees its issues as those of the fabliau, ‘destiné comme tant d’autres à nous
montrer la perfidie des femmes’ (‘Marie de France’, p. 45). Misogynous though
it is, however, Melion does no favours to the male sex either, for its hero is less
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‘Reducing this character’s role to a transient appearance, the author of RC evidently intends
to shift all responsibility on to the woman. Making her also the inventor of the means of the
betrayal and exposing her alone to the vengeful fury of Biclarel, he follows, a little uncouthly, his
intention to create a figure of “the wicked woman” in full relief’ (Beretta, pp. 373-74).
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Cf. Beretta: ‘il chierico di Troyes ha stuttato il lai di Maria di Francia come exemplum atto ad
illustrare le insidie della perfidia femminile. Così facendo, ha devuto amplificare al massimo il
tema del tradimento, ponendolo al centro del sui interesse e della struttura narrativa’ (‘The Clerc
de Troyes has exploited Marie de France’s lay as an exemplum enacted to illustrate the deceptions
of female perfidy. Having done this, he has had to expand the theme of treachery to its limits,
placing it at the centre of his interests and his narrative structure’, p. 376).
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