Robin  and  Marion  (Le  Jeu  de  Robin  et  de  Marion)  The   author   of  Le   Jeu   de   Robin   et   de  Marion,   was   known   as  Adam   d’   Arras,   Adam   de   la   Halle   (Adan   de   le   Hale)   or  (Adan   le   Bochu   or   Bocu).   Most   scholars   tend   to   disagree  with   each   other   over   the   scant   details   of   his   life,   even   the  name   is   a   problem.   Adam   was   born   in   Arras,   and   was  generally   known   as   Adam   (Adan)   or   Adam   de   la   Halle  (Adan  de   le  Halle),  meaning   ‘of   the  market’.  This  suggests  that   he   was   born   or   lived   near   the   market   in   Arras,   a  prosperous   city   in   Northern   France;   known   for   it’s  patronage   of   poetic   entertainment   from   a   large   and  literate  middle   class.   He   was   also   referred   to   as  Adam   le  Bocu  (Bochu)  or  Adam  the  Hunchback,  although  there  is  no  proof   that  he  had   such  an  affliction.  The  dates  of  his  birth  and   death   are   uncertain,   but   he   was   probably   born   some  time  between  1237  and  1250,  and  believed  by  many  to  have  died   some   time   between   1285   and   1288.   It   appears   likely  however,   that   he  was   still   alive   in   1306.1  Adam  married   a  young  sweetheart  named  Maroie  in  1262,  and  as  a  poet  and  playwright,  he  became  well  known.  As  an  active  member  of  the   organization   the  Puy  of   Arras,   he   became   accquainted  with  many  artists  and  was  himself  supported  by  a  number  of  patrons.  Apart  from  Robin  et  Marion,  Adam  is  best  know  for  his  Play  of  Madness,  and  for  his  poems  called  Conges,  but  he   also   wrote   a   number   of   songs,   rondeaux   as   well   as  several   motets.   He   also   wrote   a  Dit   d’   Amour  and   some  stanzas  on  death,  Vers  de   la  Mort,   and  an  unfinished  Le  Roi  de  Sicile.  

It   is   believed   that   Adam   composed  Robin   et  Marion  (possibly   in   Naples)    in   about   1283,   when   he   was  poet  and  musician  to  Robert  II,  Count  of  Artois,  during  the  Count’s   stay   in   Southern   Italy.   The   play   could   almost   be  described   as   a   musical   comedy,   and   is   in   Adam’s   native  

Arras   dialect.   Three   medieval   manuscripts   of   the   play  survive,  and  one  of   them  has  all  of  Adam’s  known  works.  This  one  manuscript  has   an  expanded  version  of   the  play,  which   appears   to   have   been   revised   for   a   performance   in  Arras,   shortly   after   Adam’s   death   in   Sicily.   It   has   already  been  mentioned   that   the  medieval   French   pastourelles   (of  which  Robin   et   Marion  is   a   dramatized   version)   were  probably  the  basis  for  the  Robin  and  Marian  of  the  English  May  Games.  

 1.  The  English  Medieval  Minstrel,  John  Southworth,  p.  72  (The  Boydell  Press,  1989):  ‘Adenet  was  to  be  followed  in  1306  by  the  composer  and  playwright,  Adam  de  la  Hale,  from  the  French  Court  of  Naples,  who  appears  under  his  popular  name  of  Adam   le  Bossu   in   a   list   of   entertainers   at   the  Pentecost   feast   at  Westminster   in  that  year’;  Nigel  Wilkins,  Music  in  the  Age  of  Chaucer,  Chaucer  Studies,  1,  pp.  3,  4,  141,   (D.   S.   Brewer,  Cambridge,   1979).   For   the   assembly   at  Whitsuntide   1306   at  Westminster,  see  Public  Record  Office,  Exchequer  RollE101/369/6;  see  C.  Bullock-­‐‑Davies,  Menestrellorum  Multitudo:  Minstrels   at   a   Royal   Feast,  University   of  Wales  Press,  1978.  For  the  listing  of  Maistre  Adam  le  Boscu,  see  Annales  Londoniensis,ed.  W.  Stubbs,   1882.  For   the   suggestion   that  Adam  did   live   to   see   the  dawn  of   the  fourteenth   century,   see   F.   Gegou,   ‘Adam   le   Bossu   etait-­‐‑il   mort   en   1288?’,  in  Romania  LXXXVI   (1965),  111-­‐‑117;  and  N.  Cartier,   ‘La  mort  d’  Adam  le  Bossu,  in  Romania  LXXXIX  (1968),   116-­‐‑124.  We  will   never   know   if  Adam’s   presence   at  Westminster  had  any  influence  on  the  cult  of  Robin  and  Marian  in  England.    This   page   contains   information   found   in  Medieval   French   Plays,   Richard   Axton  and  John  Stevens,  (Oxford,  Basil  Blackwell,  1971).  

 Source:  Paris,  B.N.  fr.25.566.  Printed   Editions:  Le   Jeu   de   Robin   et   de  Marion,   Kenneth  Varty,   (George  G.  Harrap  &  Co.   Ltd);  Le   Jeu   de   Robin   et  Marion,   E.   De   Boccard,   (Paris,   1923);  Medieval   French  Plays,   Richard   Axton   and   John   Stevens,   (Oxford,   Basil  Blackwell,  1971).  

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