Guillaume de Machaut, the most important poet and musician of fourteenth-century France, had considerable influence on subsequent generations of writers in both France and England. With this scholarly translation, Minnette Gaudet and Constance B. Hieatt made his long-neglected narrative poem, the Dit de l’alerion – a treatise on love and falconry – available to students of medieval literature.
In the poem, Machaut defines the problems and pleasures of courtly love by comparing them to those of falconry, a sport which modern readers know little about. The introduction and notes to this edition provide valuable information about the art of falconry, thus clarifying aspects of the poem which might be hard to understand today. The scholarly notes and introduction furnish explications and variant readings of obscure passages and comments on wordplay. A running summary of the contents of the poem is also provided in the margins.

Guillaume De Machaut's profile page

Minnette Gaudet was an associate professor of French at the University of Western Ontario.

Minnette Gaudet's profile page

Constance B. Hieatt is professor emeritus of English, University of Western Ontario and has made medieval studies her profession for forty years. She initiated an annual medieval feast potluck among her colleagues from which this book developed.

Constance B. Hieatt's profile page

‘This attractive volume is a welcome addition to the growing list of works making Guillaume de Machaut more accessible to English readers … It is to be hoped that the beauty of this English translation and the helpfulness of the introductory material will tempt readers to take up a closer study of Guillaume's original poem.’

University of Toronto Quarterly