The Lais of Marie de France

by

Marie de France

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Lais of Marie de France makes teaching easy.
In “Laüstic,” the married lady is the wife of a knight in St. Malo. She starts a love affair with a neighboring bachelor knight, talking with him through her window in the middle of the night. When her husband questions her about her absences, she claims that a nightingale’s sweet song keeps her awake. In response, her husband traps the nightingale that lives in their garden and kills it before his wife’s eyes. The lady is devastated, knowing she’s lost her pretext for standing by her window at night. She sends the bird’s body to the bachelor knight to remember her by.

The Married Lady Quotes in The Lais of Marie de France

The The Lais of Marie de France quotes below are all either spoken by The Married Lady or refer to The Married Lady. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love and Suffering Theme Icon
).
VIII. Laüstic Quotes

When the lord heard what she said, he gave a spiteful, angry laugh and devised a plan to ensnare the nightingale. […] When they had taken the nightingale, it was handed over, still alive, to the lord […] She asked her husband for the bird, but he killed it out of spite, breaking its neck wickedly with his two hands. He threw the body at the lady, so that the front of her tunic was bespattered with blood[.]

Related Characters: Marie de France, The Married Lady, The Bachelor Knight
Related Symbols: Animals
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Lais of Marie de France LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Lais of Marie de France PDF

The Married Lady Quotes in The Lais of Marie de France

The The Lais of Marie de France quotes below are all either spoken by The Married Lady or refer to The Married Lady. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love and Suffering Theme Icon
).
VIII. Laüstic Quotes

When the lord heard what she said, he gave a spiteful, angry laugh and devised a plan to ensnare the nightingale. […] When they had taken the nightingale, it was handed over, still alive, to the lord […] She asked her husband for the bird, but he killed it out of spite, breaking its neck wickedly with his two hands. He threw the body at the lady, so that the front of her tunic was bespattered with blood[.]

Related Characters: Marie de France, The Married Lady, The Bachelor Knight
Related Symbols: Animals
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis: