Little remains of the poet Marie de France aside from the narratives that reside in her manuscripts. What we know is that she was regarded highly by an unknown French, or possibly English, court. The effigy, a portrait rendered in pale marble of her head, hovers like a disembodied mind, severed for eternity from the hands that once transcribed its stories.

Those narrative threads are, we can only surmise, the indirect residue of a complex life lived or at the very least fantasized about. The themes revolve around a subversion of prescribed sexuality and notions of love. What is interesting is not only that she was writing about what was not broadly accepted in the culture, but that she was highly regarded for this kind of defiance. In her poems, she is not averse to letting her characters suffer. It’s telling that they thrive or wither in accordance with society’s reception of the character. What is implied here, if anything about her as a revered creator of such stories, their subtle opposition to certain mores, and what seems to be such positive reception?