Form and Style

Somewhat surprisingly for an author who in Piaget's opinion ‘did not know how to write’, Charny chose not to use the straightforward octosyllabic rhyming couplets that were the dominant verse form of medieval romances. Instead he opted for the comparatively demanding tercet coué, in which a four-syllable line is followed by two octosyllabic lines, all three of them rhyming.

Such a verse form was sufficiently unusual that Charny's inspiration can be narrowed down virtually to one colourful exponent, the thirteenthcentury trouvère Rutebeuf. Directly contemporary with Charny's grandfather Jean de Joinville (and a fellow Champenois), Rutebeuf was notable then as now for his satire and for the bawdiness of much of his work. However, he devoted several poems to exhorting knights and princes to go on crusade, and perhaps it was these that the ex-crusader Joinville introduced to his Charny grandson. And perhaps not just the crusading poems. For example, upon reading the famous Rutebeuf 's Complaint (a notable use of the tercet coué), it is tempting to see a similarity of tone as well as verse form to Charny's Livre, both exhibiting a heartfelt and serious intent yet being injected with wry and rueful humour, much of it at the author's own expense. Compare, for instance, the spirit of Charny's comment on a young knight's life –

– and the tone of these lines from Rutebeuf 's list of his problems: