The lais by Marie de France
Marie de France has long been recognised as a major psychologist, to use an anachronistic term. In her lais (c. 1190), she presents numerous cases of human relationships, always erotic in nature, examines conflicts in marriage, adultery, the quest for love, the tension between society and the individual's wishes, unrequited love, and many other issues.
In ‘Equitan', the focus rests on the affair between King Equitan and the wife of his seneschal. Even though she at first resists the king's wooing, arguing against his attempts to win her love because she feels inadequate for his social standing, she finally gives in. Since he then submits to her and identifies himself as her servant in love, she accepts his love and enjoys their secret meetings until the time comes when his councillors and advisers begin to urge him to marry in order to secure progeny. Even though the king does not want to submit to their urging, it becomes clear that their happiness has come to an end unless they find a way out of that dilemma. In this situation the seneschal's wife conceives of a murderous plot to get rid of her husband, setting up a bloodletting scene which appears to be ideal in view of her intention to kill him.The sequence of the murderous scheme begins with the king himself assuring her that he would never marry another woman and that he would wait until her husband had died. Once she knows of his firm intention in that regard, she outlines an apparently preconceived plan to get rid of the seneschal which would be safe and secret, but it would require Equitan's help. After a bleeding session people always look for some refreshment in a bath, but in this case the water in the tub for her husband would be boiling hot, bringing about his immediate death: ‘I shall see to it that the bathwater is heated and the two tubs brought in. I shall make his bath boiling hot; there isn't a man alive under heaven who would not be scalded and brought low as soon as he sat in it.'[1162]
Tragically, however, the murderous couple then fail because they cannot contain themselves and immediately enjoy each other's body in the bedroom as soon as the seneschal has left for some diversion.
Although they should control themselves and prepare for the scheme to come to fruition, they become victims of their passion and are thus surprised by the seneschal who suddenly returns and forces his way into the room. In order to hide his shame, Equitan jumps into the tub and is himself scalded to death, whereupon the seneschal grabs his wife and drowns her in the other tub.As the commentator remarks, ‘Evil rebounded on him', and ‘those who seek the misfortune of others have all the misfortune cast back upon themselves' (20). In no other lai does Marie investigate criminal behaviour more drastically, and she is very clear about her condemnation of the evil thinking, which rebounds on the perpetrators. In ‘Bisclavret' the wife also acts badly by having a knight steal her husband's clothing once she has learned of his transforming into a werewolf for three days a week. Without his clothing it is impossible for him to regain his human shape. At the end, after Bisclavret, that is, the werewolf, has already been found and accepted as a friendly pet by the king, he has a chance to avenge his wife's evil deed and bites off her nose, which publicly reveals her criminal action and allows the protagonist ultimately to recover his own self. The narrator clearly condemns the wife for her betrayal, though we might also have good cause to reflect upon Bisclavret's failure to communicate clearly with his wife about his fearful second nature.
In ‘Eliduc' the protagonist, though happily married, elopes with a princess from Exeter and brings her back home to Brittany. The truth is revealed during a storm when they are crossing the Channel, and the young lady swoons when she realises that she had been deceived, but later Eliduc's wife revives her and then, having understood her husband's change of heart, releases him from their marriage vow, which thus allows him to marry the princess, while his first wife enters a newly erected monastery.
Even though Eliduc normally seems to be in command of all events in his life, as soon as this new love has struck him, he begins to act irrationally, and even murderously.
During the sea voyage, when they are all afraid of sinking because of the massive storm, one of the sailors calls out that they should sacrifice the princess in order to appease God since Eliduc is about to commit adultery and bigamy at the same time. This enrages the protagonist so much that he takes an oar, hits the sailor, and shoves the unconscious body into the water (81). Indirectly we learn that this was the one person commanding the rudder, so, once he has killed him, Eliduc takes over the rudder and can thus safely steer the ship into a near-by harbour. From there he takes the body of his beloved, still in a coma, to an abandoned hermit's cell, and places her on the altar, but he does not know how to proceed from there. It takes his wife's action to bring about the dramatic change, which then leads to the strangely happy ending. Did Eliduc murder the sailor? Did he act in self-defence, or out of revenge for the sailor's vicious comments, or did he simply allow his anger to come forth? Would the sailor have been justified in his suggestion of tossing the young woman into the sea so that they all would be saved - another type of murder?The situation proves tantalising since both men reveal a criminal mind. But only Eliduc can get out of this situation and achieve true happiness because of his wife's selfless sacrifice.[1163] He himself only knows how to operate effectively and efficiently whenever he faces a military situation, yet he becomes very confused and insecure when he is confronted with matters of love. It may seem understandable that he kills the sailor since the latter's threatening words might endanger his mistress's life, but he murders, after all, and he is about to commit bigamy, not knowing at all how to handle this dilemma.
In ‘Yonec' (no. VII), the husband kills the competitor for his wife, the knight who transforms into a goshawk, by having sharp spokes planted into the window frame through which the latter flies in.
But many years later, when the married couple, by then with their grown-up son accompanying them, visit a foreign castle, the truth is revealed that the young man was fathered by that mysterious knight. The wife swoons and dies, and her son decapitates the old man who had kept his young wife as a prisoner for so long and had murdered the lover. Similarly, in ‘Laüstic' (no. VIII), the jealous husband orders his servants to catch the nightingale which is allegedly keeping his wife awake at night, kills the bird and throws the dead body at her chest, which symbolises the enforced end of her love for a neighbouring knight. At the same time, the narrator voices vehement criticism of the brutal and mean-spirited husband and condemns him for his violent behaviour: ‘With his two hands he wrung its neck; he did this most villainously' (56).In other words, Marie engages intensively with the phenomenon of physical violence as an obstacle to the experience of love, though she still outlines, perhaps in a dreamlike fashion, how happiness in love could be achieved, especially if evil-mindedness and brute force can be overcome. The world of courtly culture was not, as these examples and many others (Parzival, Tristan, Erec, Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal, etc.) indicate, simply peaceful. Even if the various courtly narratives and romances may have overdramatised the effect of violence, there is little doubt that the ideal of love was regarded as almost utopian and yet highly desirable, especially in the face of harsh and at times brutal conditions within marriage.[1164]