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 falconry, a sport which modern readers know little about. The introduction and...