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 its
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
Counts stay in Southern Italy. The play could almost be
described as a musical comedy, and is in Adams native

Arras dialect. Three medieval manuscripts of the play

survive, and one of them has all of Adams 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 Adams 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 Adams 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).