Jean De Meun Jean de Meun, a French poet, was born in 1240 in Meung-sur-Loire and died in Par is around 1305.

Some sources state that the name Clopinel comes from the fact th at he was lame while others claim that it was his last name. Jean was a member o f the bourgeois class, educated at the University of Paris, a Christian, and an admirer of Latin authors such as Cicero. He had knowledge of several languages a nd this is noted by the fact that he translated "The Consolation of Philosophy" into medieval French. Other than these facts, little is known about his life. Hi s works were satirical and allegorical and influenced later authors such as Geof frey Chaucer. Jean is most famously known for his work on the allegorical, 21,75 0-line poem, "The Roman de la Rose" ("Romance of the Rose"). This poem was start ed by Guillaume de Lorris in 1225 and completed by Jean de Meun four decades lat er. Lorris wrote roughly four thousand verses before his death and Jean added so me 18,000 lines afterwards. This poem is considered to be the most important wor k to come from Old French literary tradition and it enjoyed a considerable amoun t of success among medieval scholars, with over two hundred manuscripts made of it at that time. However, scholars today have a hard time understanding the true meaning of the poem. "The Romance of the Rose" was translated into Italian, Dut ch, and English by the late fourteenth century, a marvel for a literary work of that time period. Jean strove to convey to the nobility ideas of courtly love and other medieval i deas and as a result, his work converted the poem into a medium to communicate t opics and ideas that would captivate his readers. The text contains topics rangi ng from classical heroes and theories on astronomy, to the importance of the mid dle class and problems such as greed. Some of these topics created controversy, but nonetheless held the reader's interest. In the poem, Jean tries to dissuade the lover, but the god of Love later reproaches the lover or lending an ear to R eason. In the course of the lover's turmoil he has occasion to reflect, among ot her things, that possessions are burdens, that charity and justice are by no mea ns equal, that power and virtue never go together, and that, even in destroying, Nature carries on her struggle against death. At last Love organizes an assault on the prison of the rose, depending on False Appearance for military success. The attack succeeds, and the lover receives the rose. (Encyclopedia of World Bio graphy, 543). From this passage and others from the poem, Jean seems to be unhappy with the cu rrent state of his society and wants reform. One notices that the words "Love", "Reason", "Nature", and "False Appearance" are capitalized. Jean personifies wor ds to make them characters in the poem. The three major personifications present : Reason, Nature, and Genius help Jean push his ideas of reform through to the r eader and also suggest "that a more abstract meaning exists underneath the concr ete one" (Arden, 44). These personifications helped scholars save the poem from being pronounced as an act of heresy by the church. The scholars claimed it was nothing more than an allegory (Arden, 43). In addition, The poem implies that "s exuality is irrational; reason has no say in it" (Fleming, 19). Jean de Meun relates to the ideas of chivalry through his works. His works tell us a lot about him. "The Romance of the Rose" talks about courtly love and other chivalric ideas, ideals that Jean de Meun strongly believed in. Jean wanted his work to reform his society to portray chivalric characteristics. Bibliography Arden, Heather M. The Romance of the Rose. Boston: University of Cincinnati, 198 7. Fleming, John V. Reason and the Lover. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1 984.

Hult, David F. Self - Fulfilling Prophecies: Readership and Authority in the Fir st Roman de la Rose. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. "Jean De Meun." Encyclopaedia Americana. Vol. 15, 1993 ed. "Jean De Meun." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 6, 1998 ed. "Jean De Meun." Encyclopaedia of World Biography. Vol. 5, 1973 ed. Internet Sites www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rashoaf/rosev.htm http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/canttales/mert/rom-marr.html