The Tale of the Alerion

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 f