ADAM DE LA HALLE

(Adam le Bossu)

(ca. 1240–ca. 1288)

Adam de la Halle was one of the most important of the French TROUVÈRES, as well as a very influential playwright and composer. He was an important innovator in secular theater, and his playJeu de Robin et Marionis sometimes called the first comic opera because of its use of song and dance. Adam was probably born in Arras in about 1240. He is sometimes called “Adam le Bossu,” or “the Hunchback,” though he seems not to have had that specific affliction. Perhaps it was a family name referring to one of his ancestors. In any case Adam belonged to thepuyin Arras—the literary fraternity charged with staging miracle plays, which also sponsored poetic contests, in which he seems to have taken part.

Adam is said to have been educated at the Cistercian Abbey of Vaucelles, after which he apparently went to Paris to continue his schooling—he is often referred to asmaistre, which would suggest a university education. He probably returned to Arras around 1270, and apparently as part of thepuycompetitions wrote a number ofjeux-partis(a kind ofTENSOor debate poem), many with the poet Jehan Bretel,who died in 1272.At some point in Arras he wroteLe Jeu de la feuillée(The play of the greensward), a satirical look at his own life and the citizens of Arras, including his wife, his father (whom he depicts as a miser), and a drunken monk who sells fake holy relics.

In about 1272, Adam entered the service of Robert II, count of Artois.He accompanied Robert on a number of campaigns, and one of his poems,Le Congé(The leave-taking), conveys his sorrow at having to leave his wife. It may have been written in 1283, when Adam accompanied Robert to the Angevin kingdom of Naples, where Robert journeyed to help his uncle, King Charles d’Anjou, in the Sicilian war.Adam seems to have become something of a favorite in Charles’s court, and he composed a CHANSON DE GESTE,Le roi de Sicile, in Charles’s honor, though only the opening of the poem has survived. It is likely that Sicily is also where Adam wrote his second important play,Le Jeu de Robin et Marion(ca. 1285). This play is a dramatizedPASTOURELLE, telling the story of a knight who tries to woo a country maiden. It includes Adam’s own lyrics set to what are probably popular folk songs (though they may be Adam’s own compositions) sung by the leading actors. The conventional view is that Adam died in 1288. This is based on the testimony of a scribe who calls himself Jehan Madus and claims to be Adam’s nephew, and who in 1288 says that Adam is deceased. However, it has been suggested that the “Maistre Adam le Bosu,” who is mentioned as being paid for entertaining at a royal feast in Westminster for the coronation of England’s King Edward II in 1307, is Adam de la Halle.

Adam is perhaps best known for his dramatic works, but he wrote a variety of lyrics, includingchansons(seecanso) and RONDEAUX or dance songs. He is remembered as one of the most important musicians of his time: Hischansonsare all written in the old-fashioned single melody settings, but hisrondeauxare three-part polyphonic compositions. It seems likely that Adam had learned the new art of polyphony while studying at Paris. Some two dozen manuscripts of his lyrics survive, and it is a testament to Adam’s popularity in his own time that one of these manuscripts is a collected edition of his works, arranged by genres— the first such collection for any medieval lyricist— that is now in the National Library of Paris.

■ Adam de la Halle.The Lyrics and Melodies of Adam de la Halle. Edited by Deborah Howard Nelson, and Hendrik van der Werf. New York: Garland, 1985.

■ Goldin, Frederick, ed. and trans.Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvères: An Anthology and a History. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973.

■ Huot, Sylvia. “Transformations of Lyric Voice in the Songs,Motets, and Plays of Adam de la Halle,”Romanic Review77 (1987): 148–164.

■ Marshall, J. H., ed.The Chansons of Adam de la Halle. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1971.

■ Van Deusen,Nancy E. “The Paradox of Privacy in the Love Songs of Adam de la Halle.” InThe Cultural Milieu of the Troubadours and Trouvères, 56–66. Ottawa: Institute of Medieval Music, 1994.