Jean De Meun :: Essays Papers

Jean De Meun Jean de Meun, a French poet, was born in 1240 in Meung-sur-Loire and died in Paris around 1305. Some sources state that the name Clopinel comes from the fact that he was lame while others claim that it was his last name. Jean was a member of the bourgeois class, educated at the University of Paris, a Christian, and an admirer of Latin authors such as Cicero. He had knowledge of several languages and this is noted by the fact that he translated "The Consolation of Philosophy" into medieval French. Other than these facts, little is known about his life. His works were satirical and allegorical and influenced later authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer. Jean is most famously known for his work on the allegorical, 21,750-line poem, "The Roman de la Rose" ("Romance of the Rose"). This poem was started by Guillaume de Lorris in 1225 and completed by Jean de Meun four decades later. Lorris wrote roughly four thousand verses before his death and Jean added some 18,000 lines afterwards . This poem is considered to be the most important work to come from Old French literary tradition and it enjoyed a considerable amount of success among medieval scholars, with over two hundred manuscripts made of it at that time. However, scholars today have a hard time understanding the true meaning of the poem. "The Romance of the Rose" was translated into Italian, Dutch, and English by the late fourteenth century, a marvel for a literary work of that time period. Jean strove to convey to the nobility ideas of courtly love and other medieval ideas and as a result, his work converted the poem into a medium to communicate topics and ideas that would captivate his readers. The text contains topics ranging from classical heroes and theories on astronomy, to the importance of the middle class and problems such as greed. Some of these topics created controversy, but nonetheless held the reader's interest. In the poem, Jean tries to dissuade the lover, but the god of Love later reproaches the lover or lending an ear to Reason. In the course of the lover's turmoil he has occasion to reflect, among other things, that possessions are burdens, that charity and justice are by no means equal, that power and virtue never go together, and that, even in destroying, Nature carries on her struggle against death.