Medieval Love Debate at Longleat
The Belle dame sans mercy in Longleat House Manuscript (MS) 258
What is the Belle dame sans mercy?
In 1424, a French poet called Alain Chartier wrote a poem which created literary history. In it, a beautiful lady chooses not to accept the proffered love and devotion of her courtly suitor. Instead of rewarding his devotion, pitying his suffering, accepting his suit, and pledging herself to be his lady (as he hopes and expects), she firmly declines to show him mercy. The Lady says she has no desire for 'courtly love' .
'D'amours ne quier courroux ne aysance / Ne grant espoir ne grant desir'
'Courtly love' was a highly conventionalized system of chivalric love and etiquette used extensively in medieval European literature. The Lady does not encourage the Suitor, she wishes him well, but cannot return his feelings, no matter how hard he tries to persuade her.
The Clumber Park Alain Chartier Manuscript: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folio 94v. The Belle Dame and her Suitor debate, with the poem's narrator listening in.
The Clumber Park Alain Chartier Manuscript: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folio 94v. The Belle Dame and her Suitor debate, with the poem's narrator listening in.
In a debate with the Suitor, the Lady claims the right to make reasoned decisions and choices for herself, and to have those decisions respected. She should not, she says, be made to accept the Suitor's love if she cannot reciprocate it.
In this video, you can hear Chartier's Lady voice her most famous assertion: that she is 'free' to choose and that she values that freedom.
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy | The Lady: Je suis france (I am free).
In French, one can pun on the word 'free' and the word 'France', because they are written in the same way.
'Je suis france, et france veul estre'
Chartier wrote the Belle Dame during war between France and England. The Lady's assertion of 'freedom' also takes on a political edge in this context. As an allegorical representation of France, Chartier's Lady asserts a defiant independence in the face of English attack.
The voice of Chartier's Lady became a literary sensation.
The Clumber Park Alain Chartier Manuscript: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folio 94v. The Belle Dame and her Suitor take part in a dance.
The Clumber Park Alain Chartier Manuscript: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folio 94v. The Belle Dame and her Suitor take part in a dance.
Her debate with her Suitor about the ethics of love and the necessity of respecting individual choice within a socially structured world is powerful. The poem sparked continuations and re-imaginations of its characters. Translations of the Belle Dame were made, including into English.
MS Longleat 258: an English Belle Dame Manuscript
Longleat House Library owns one of only five manuscripts containing a medieval English translation of the Belle Dame. Longleat MS 258 was copied c.1475-1500. The Belle Dame translation was likely undertaken in the mid-1400s, by Sir Richard Roos. MS 258 shows that the Belle Dame was read throughout the fifteenth century and beyond.
Contents list, Longleat MS 258, folio 147v (detail).
Contents list, Longleat MS 258, folio 147v (detail).
On the last page of MS 258 is a worn, original contents list. The Belle Dame is listed second to last. Some of MS 258's poems are by Geoffrey Chaucer (d.1399) whose poetry was extremely popular during his life and after. Well-known Chaucer texts are gathered with the Belle Dame and other less well-known medieval debate poems. The result is a manuscript book which focuses on the ethics of romantic behaviour and the nature of free choice.
Longleat MS 258, folio 126v [paper folio], detail. The English Belle Dame.
Longleat MS 258, folio 126v [paper folio], detail. The English Belle Dame.
Longleat MS 258, folio 128r [vellum folio], detail. The English Belle Dame.
Longleat MS 258, folio 128r [vellum folio], detail. The English Belle Dame.
The Opening of the Debate: the stakes
The Belle Dame opens with a scene of eavesdropping. The two protagonists' tit-for-tat debate in a courtly garden space is transcribed by a narrator who hides behind a trellis.
The Suitor begins by repeating his service and devotion to the Lady; to him this makes him deserving. Only she, he says, can set their 'war' at peace, by accepting him. He constructs an elaborate allegory, in which the look from the Lady's eyes both rejects and encourages him. The video below shows how the Lady responds to this.
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy | The Lady & the Suitor: Eyes are made for looking.
Redefining Courtesy
The Suitor suggests that the Lady's refusal of him could attract accusations of discourtesy. Medieval courtesy meant more than good manners. It was about acting with graciousness, consideration, benevolence, and propriety.
The Suitor argues that his service merits a courteous reward. In the courtly romance tradition, a lover is recompensed for devotion by the granting of a lady's favour. The Suitor says this is what the Lady should do, or she will be judged negatively by her peers.
The Lady is not persuaded by this strategy. Instead, she asks the Suitor to redefine courtesy and rethink the relationship between love, gifts freely given, and rewards. Her own honour is more important to her than measuring up to a courtly feminine ideal. The following video traces this part of the debate.
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy | The Lady & the Suitor: What is courtesy?
Redefining Pity
Pity was a key medieval courtly virtue. The Suitor wants the Lady to take pity on his suffering, which is caused by his love of her. He constructs pity as a key feminine virtue; its opposite is cruelty. The Lady should, he says, allow pity, not cruelty, to guide her.
Once again, the Lady responds by deconstructing and redefining the terms that the Suitor uses. When is it appropriate to show pity, and how much? What should one do if to show pity would also mean compromising one's own reputation? Then pity would turn to anger and hate.
This section of the debate is one of the most ethically engaged and (on the Suitor's part) bad-tempered in the poem. As well as drawing attention to the Lady's physical beauty (a beauty which is inversely mirrored by her hard-heartedness), he accuses her of having a 'high heart': a heart which is too proud to be influenced by pity.
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy | The Lady & the Suitor: What is pity?
The Lady's response is extremely powerful. The Suitor might love her, but it should be clear that this alone cannot compel a return, and to show inappropriate or excessive levels of pity would just be storing up grief for the future.
I nyll not hate myn hert for others sake
The Lady must stay true to her own heart and principles first. Her concern is her reputation. The Suitor might argue that it is compromised by a lack of courtesy and pity, but to the Lady, a courtly romance could lead to a greater loss of reputation.
Responding to the Belle Dame: 'the Quarrel of the Belle Dame Sans Mercy'
Chartier's poem ends with the Suitor's defeat. The narrator tells us that the Suitor later died of his grief and exhorts women not to behave as mercilessly as the Lady. This is the moment when narrator gives her the name we know her by, 'La Belle Dame Sans Mercy'. Yet, he does so in a slightly equivocal fashion, prompting us to consider how appropriate this nickname is. The Middle English translation retains this sense of doubt about the naming, over-emphasizing the reasonableness of the judgement, and underlining that it is the narrator's own impression:
'hir that here is named Rightwisly / Whiche by Reason me semeth in this case / May be called la belle dame sanz mercy.'
This provocative act of naming at the poem's close gave rise to an enormous number of continuations and re-writings. Collectively, scholars call these continuations 'The Quarrel of the Belle Dame Sans Mercy'.
Some Quarrel poets imagined the Lady on trial, forced by a courtroom to account for her pitilessness. Others wrote back against these, and defended the Lady, imagining 'backstories' for her, and emphasising her right to make her own decisions in love.
Some texts explored ethical questions about love, courtesy, and pity in the context of new characters. One of these is The Debate of the Eye and the Heart and it is also in MS 258.
The Eye and the Heart
This poem was composed in French by Michault Taillevent in c.1444. It responds to the Belle Dame by exploring the psyche and embodied experiences of the lovelorn suitor of an absent lady. This suitor's Eye and Heart are personified and argue furiously with each other.
Which is to blame for his falling in love? How does love enter the mind and body and what forces nurture and encourage it?
Image: Clumber Park Alain Chartier Manuscript: Beinecke Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folios 89r.
As the debate between the Eye and the Heart unfolds, we are reminded of the way in which the Belle Dame's Suitor personified the Lady's eyes and their looks to argue that a part of her encouraged his suit. Taillevent follows through on the Suitor's initial allegory: he gives the Eye and the Heart personalities and voices, as they argue about their respective psychological and physical roles in creating love and desire.
The Eye & the Heart: Which causes one to love?
MS 258 contains the only known medieval English translation of the Eye and the Heart.
The fact that MS 258 includes this translation alongside the English Belle Dame makes it an important witness to English interest in the Quarrel. The reader and compiler of Longleat MS 258 clearly enjoyed the Quarrel, and placed it in a bespoke book alongside English texts with related themes.
The Eye and the Heart, Longleat MS 258, folio 107r (detail)
The Eye and the Heart, Longleat MS 258, folio 107r (detail)
The Eye and the Heart try to settle their differences by jousting before the God of Love; neither wins and so they are summoned to Venus's court to explain their debate.
The Clumber Park Chartier: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folio 89r (detail) The Eye and the Heart joust.
The Clumber Park Chartier: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 1216, folio 89r (detail) The Eye and the Heart joust.
Like many 'Quarrel' texts which respond to the Belle Dame, their debate is unresolved: neither the Eye or the Heart's arguments vanquish the other's entirely. This lack of resolution encouraged poets and readers to engage in the debate; they might respond by writing a new poem or annotating their manuscript.
Reader responses in the Longleat Manuscript
MS 258 contains annotations and additions by readers which suggest that its debate poems inspired participation.
One of the most extensive additions is a punctuation poem on the subject of women's virtues and vices. A mid- to late-sixteenth-century reader copied this poem onto a blank folio between two texts.
The 'humour' of a punctuation poem hinges on the placement of the punctuation. There are two (usually opposite) meanings according to this placement; the second meaning remains audible or visible behind the first.
The MS 258 punctuation poem can be read in praise or in denigration of women. The person who wrote it into the manuscript has put in clear punctuation marks to help a reader perceive the different readings.
Parts of this poem appear in other manuscripts from roughly the same time period. In the so-called 'Maitland folio' (1570-1586) it is accompanied by this instruction to the reader.
'Reid this verss acording to the meitter & it is guid of wemen, bot reid it to the nott, ewin the contrair.'
In the videos below, you can hear the way in which punctuation placement makes the same poem 'mean' two different sets of generalisations about women and their behaviour.
A medieval punctuation poem: All women are noble and virtuous...
A medieval punctuation poem: All women are noble and virtuous ... or are they?
MS 258 & Early Printing
Longleat MS 258 has a close relationship with early printing. One of the most famous printed books connected to Longleat was edited by William Thynne (d.1546), Clerk of the Kitchen to Henry VIII and uncle to the builder of Longleat. This was the pioneering Workes of Geffray Chaucer, newly printed, with divers workes that were never in print before (London, 1532). It was the first attempt at a fully comprehensive edition of Chaucer’s poetry.
Title page of The Workes of Geffray Chaucer (1532). STC: 5068.
Title page of The Workes of Geffray Chaucer (1532). STC: 5068.
It also contained works which circulated in manuscript alongside Chaucer’s, including the English Belle Dame. The Belle Dame first appeared in print in 1526, when it was issued by a printer called Richard Pynson (c.1449-c.1529) .
Pynson left out the stanza where the Lady is named ‘La Belle Dame Sans Mercy’; he also added a printer’s envoy (a note) at the end. In it, he echoes the Lady’s position, champions moderate and honest love, and criticises both male deceit and the slander of the female reputation. By adding a pro-feminine envoy, Pynson defined his identity as a printer and his own ‘slant’ on the texts he offered customers.
“For he that by wordes or gifts doth pursue / To deprive a woman her best jewell / As her good name and fame ... Is signe of no good love, but hate cruell.”
When Thynne came to print the Belle Dame in his Workes of Chaucer, he consulted Pynson’s text and compared it to one or more medieval manuscripts of the poem. This would have shown that Pynson’s ending had been changed.
Instructions to the typesetter: ‘coll’ & underlining to indicate a new column. Longleat MS 258, folio 136v.
Instructions to the typesetter: ‘coll’ & underlining to indicate a new column. Longleat MS 258, folio 136v.
The new column (indicated with an arrow) as printed in the 1532 Chaucer.
The new column (indicated with an arrow) as printed in the 1532 Chaucer.
Thynne used Pynson’s Belle Dame to supply the text for his version of the Belle Dame up the point at which Pynson made the change. Thynne then switched to MS 258 for the poem's conclusion. We know this because he, or his printer (Thomas Godfray), left marks in MS 258 to indicate where a new printed column should start. These marks match the column division in Thynne’s Workes of Chaucer exactly.
Other printers: The Eye and the Heart
Thynne's was not the only printer to use MS 258. The manuscripts copy of the Eye and the Heart also contains marks which show that a printer used it to set type. There are inky thumbprints, and also a series of numbers and dashes, which likely mark off columns or pages of text.
Longleat MS 258, The Eye and the Heart, folio 108r.
Longleat MS 258, The Eye and the Heart, folio 108r.
Only one printed text of the English Eye and Heart survives.
![Ill-defined woodcut image of a figure reclining. Above which the title introduces the 'the dysputacyon or co[m]playnt of the herte thorughe perced with the lokynge of the eye'.](./assets/w1lW3Tebbf/eyeheart_ai_cropped-3001x4468.jpg)
'A lytel treatyse called the dysputaction or co[m]playnt of the herte throughe perced with the lokynge of the eye', De Worde, Eye and Heart: The Eye and the Heart (London: Wynkyn de Worde, ?1516). Ai. STC: 6915. Reproduced with permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
'A lytel treatyse called the dysputaction or co[m]playnt of the herte throughe perced with the lokynge of the eye', De Worde, Eye and Heart: The Eye and the Heart (London: Wynkyn de Worde, ?1516). Ai. STC: 6915. Reproduced with permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Printed in the early sixteenth century by Wynkyn de Worde, the text's layout does not match the marks in MS 258. It probably was not, therefore, de Worde that made those marks. This suggests that there may have been a second printed version of the poem of which no copies survive. The poem might well have been more popular with readers than we have assumed.
MS 258: The Thynne Provenance
William Thynne, the Chaucer editor, was an ancestor of the Marquesses of Bath; it is very likely that it is through William that the manuscript entered the Longleat library. Now virtually illegible, William and Thomas Godfray’s signatures appear in an inscription at the end of MS 258.
On the opening page, Sir John Thynne (d.1580), William’s nephew and the builder of Longleat House, has also signed his name. It is likely that John acquired MS 258 from William. This remarkable manuscript has remained in the family library ever since.
'Constat John Thynne'. The ownership mark of Sir John Thynne (d.1580).
'Constat John Thynne'. The ownership mark of Sir John Thynne (d.1580).
Exhibition credits
Dr Olivia (Liv) Robinson (University of Birmingham) & Edwina Penge (Longleat)
Film: Tom Anders (Longleat). Actors: Anna E., Yueqi Wu & Freddy Conway-Shaw.
The copyright of the MS 258 images used in this exhibition belongs to the Marquess of Bath, Longleat. For enquires to use or reproduce these images, please contact: archives@longleat.co.uk.
‘Medieval Love Debate at Longleat’ was a collaborative project between Longleat & the University of Birmingham. It was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
During the project, MS 258 was fully digitised, performances of its poetry were filmed, and this online exhibition was created to complement a physical exhibit displayed at Longleat House (April-Jun 2025).
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