Audefroi Le Batard

AUDEFROI LE BATARD, French tromere, flourished at the end of the 1 2th century and was born at Arras. Of his life nothing is known. The seigneur de Nesles, to whom some of his songs are addressed, is probably the chatelain of Bruges who joined the crusade of 1200. Audefroi was the author of at least five lyric romances: Argentine, Belle Idoine, Belle Isabeau, Belle Emmelos and Beatrix. These romances follow older chansons in subject, but the smoothness of the verse and beauty of detail hardly compensate for the spontaneity of the shorter form. See A. Jeanroy, Les Origines de la poesie lyrique en France au moyen Age (Paris, 1889).