Chretien de Troyes 
Four Arthurian Romances 
‘Cliges’

It 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. Cligès scholar Lucie Polak not only verifies the Tristan and Isolde reworking found in the text, but also suggests that Cligès may be modeled after Ovid’s character Narcissus. Chrétien’s works include five major poems in rhyming eight-syllable couplets. Four of these are complete; ‘Erec and Enide’ (c. 1170); ‘Cligès’ (c. 1176), and ‘Yvain, the Knight of the Lion’ and ‘Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart’, both written simultaneously between 1177 and 1181. Chrétien’s final romance was ‘Perceval, the Story of the Grail’, written between 1181 and 1190, but left unfinished, though some scholars have disputed this. This volume includes a comprehensive set of linked footnotes to deepen the reading experience.