William the Clerk of Normandy (French:Guillaume le Clerc de Normandie) (fl. 1210/1211–1227/1238) was aNormancleric andOld Frenchpoet. He is not the same person as theScoto-Norman poetWilliam the Clerk, who wrote theRoman de Fergus, sometimes wrongly attributed to the Norman.
William was married with a family. Both theCatholic Encyclopedia and theOxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODB) maintains that he lived for a time inEngland, but it remains that he did not write in theAnglo-Norman dialect. He was originally fromNormandy and his works suggest that he resided in theDiocese of Lichfield in England.
William authored "six religio-didactic works for lay audiences" (ODB). The oldest, dated to 1210 or 1211, and most popular—it survives in twenty manuscripts—is theBestiaire divin ("Divine Bestiary"), a work ofnatural history andtheology. It is dated on the basis of a reference to the sad state of the English Church in 1208. It contains many descriptions of animal life. It is dedicated to William's lord, a certainRadulphus, whose name is the object of anetymology given in theepilogue. Radulphus may beRalph of Maidstone, who was treasurer ofLichfield in 1215. TheBestiaire was given several printings between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
William's also wrote theVie de Tobie for one William, prior ofKenilworth inArden (1214–27), also in the diocese of Lichfield, andLes joies de notre Dame (ornostre Dame), which survives in only a single manuscript. The legendaryVie de Sainte Marie-Madeleine, a short biography ofMary Magdalene, belongs to an unknown date. TheBesant de Dieu, an allegorical poem, William composed in 1226 or 1227. For this William drew on several recent events: the publication ofDe miseria conditionis humanae byPope Innocent III, theFourth Crusade, theinterdict placed on England by Innocent in 1208–13, theAlbigensian Crusade, and the Albigensian campaigns ofLouis VIII of France. William also comments on the oppression of the peasantry by their rulers. William's last piece,Les treis moz de l'evesque de Lincoln, was written between 1227 and 1238 forAlexander Stavensby, theBishop of Lichfield.
Severalfabliaux have been erroneously assigned to William:Du prestre et d'Alison,La male honte, andLa fille à la bourgeoise. There is no grounds for these ascriptions.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
