The Roman de Fauvel is a 14th-century French allegorical verse romance of satirical bent, generally attributed to , a clerk at the French royal chancery. The original narrative of 3,280 octosyllabics is divided into two books, dated to 1310 and 1314 respectively, during the reigns of Philip IV and Louis X. In 1316–7 Chaillou de Pesstain produced a greatly expanded version.
The romance features Fauvel, a fallow-colored horse who rises to prominence in the French royal court, and through him satirizes the self-serving hedonism and hypocrisy of men, and the excesses of the ruling estates, both secular and ecclesiastical. The antihero's name can be broken down to mean "false veil", and also forms an acrostic F-A-V-V-E-L with the letters standing for the human vices: Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Variability (Fickleness), Envy, and Laxity. The romance also gave birth to the English expression "curry fauvel", the obsolete original form of "curry favor". The work is reminiscent of a similar tract in the 13th-century Roman de la Rose, though owes more to the animal fabliaux of Reynard the Fox.
Chaillou's manuscript (Paris, BN fr. 146) is a splendid work of art with illuminations by the painter known as the , as well as being of considerable musicological interest due to interpolations of 169 pieces of music, which span the gamut of thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century genres and textures. Some of these pieces are linked to Philippe de Vitry and the nascent musical style referred to as Ars Nova.
Plot
The poem revolves around the central figure, an ambitious and foolish horse, called Fauvel. The horse's name itself is rife with symbolism. "Fauvel" comes from the color of its coat, which is "muddy beige" (or fallow-colored) and symbolic of Vanity. The name breaks down to fau-vel, or "false veil", and is furthermore an acronym F-A-V-V-E-L taken from the head letters of these vices: Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Variability (Fickleness), Envy, and Laxity (Flaterie, Avarice, Vilanie, Varieté, Envie, Lascheté).
The first book is a rebuke against the clergy and society, tainted by Sin and corruption. Fauvel though he is a horse no longer resides in a stable, but is set up in a grand house (the royal palace in fact) by the grace of Dame Fortune, the goddess of Fate. He changes his residence to suit his needs, and has a custom manger and hayrack built. In his garderobe (toilet) he has those from the religious order stroking him to make sure "no dung can remain on him." Church and secular leaders far and wide make pilgrimages to see him, and bow to him in servitude. These potentates condescend to brush and clean Fauvel from his tonsured head to tail. These fawning groomers are said to "curry" () Fauvel in the original phrasing of the work, and this is where the English expression "curry favour" has originated, corrupted from the earlier form "curry fauvel."
Fauvel travels to Macrocosmos and asks Dame Fortune for her hand in marriage. She denies him, but in her stead she proposes he wed Lady Vainglory. Fauvel agrees, and the wedding takes place, with such guests present as Flirtation, Adultery, Carnal Lust, and Venus, in a technique similar to that of the Morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Finally, Dame Fortune reveals that Fauvel's role in the world is to give birth to more iniquitous rulers like himself, and to be a harbinger of the Antichrist.
The manuscript was written to criticise King Philip IV, but direct attacks on his character were too dangerous. Instead, the king's second in command, Enguerrand de Marigny was the model for Fauvel.
Text
The Roman de Fauvel is a poem of 3280 octasyllabic rhyming couplets, divided into two books: Book 1 in 1226 verses, completed 1310 according to its last verse; and Book 2, in 2054 verses, completed 1314 according to its explicit. In 1316–7 Chaillou de Pe[s]stain (a still unidentified member of a family of bureaucrats) augmented this text with an additional 3000 verses spanning both books (1800 lines of which are spent on Fauvel's wedding).
Surviving copies
The earliest manuscript to survive contains Chaillou's expanded version in his own hand (Paris, BN fr. 146). The dozen or so other extant manuscripts are of the non-interpolated form, and these continued to be copied into the fifteenth century. Chaillou's deluxe manuscript is illustrated with 78 miniatures, and inserts 169 musical pieces, woven into a complex mise-en-page.