Ysaÿe le Triste, an anonymous French prose romance dating from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, is both a product and reflection of a literary culture where multiple modes of composition and performance of narrative flourished. The romance recounts the intertwined stories of Ysaÿe, the son of Tristan and Yseut; his lover, Marthe; their son, named Marc(!); and Ysaÿe's dwarf attendant, Tronc (who is actually the fairy-king Oberon transmogrified by a curse). The substantial subplot centered on Marthe (some eighty pages out of André Giacchetti's 460-page edition, more than one-sixth of Ysaÿe le Triste) is remarkable in its rich representation of the production and performance of both orally composed and written narratives.

Marthe is both an accomplished author and a wonderfully skilled performer of narrative. When the adventure-seeking Ysaÿe abandons Marthe, unwed and (unbeknownst to them) pregnant with their son, she copes with her distress by writing and performing narratives. After two years of suffering, Marthe leaves their son and sets off in search of Ysaÿe, traveling for a full fifteen years as a professional performer—first as a male, then as a female minstrel. Along the way, she sings her own narrative compositions. Although her path crosses that of Ysaÿe multiple times, they repeatedly fail to recognize each other. Eventually, at the court of King Estrahier, Marthe overhears two men talking and learns that one is Ysaÿe. She immediately has delivered to him an autobiographical allegorical romance that she has written. When Tronc reads the artfully crafted written narrative aloud to him, Ysaÿe finally recognizes his fiancée and they reunite.

This subplot focused on Marthe provides a veritable showcase of performances of medieval narrative. It attributes to Marthe over a dozen compositions that are inserted directly into Ysaÿe le Triste and that are represented as read, recited, or sung—sometimes with, and sometimes without, musical accompaniment— either by Marthe herself or by a fellow character. The majority of these compositions are narrative songs and lais; her longest, most significant, and final interpolation is her thousand-verse romance. Marthe herself creates every narrative that she recites, sings, or writes down. She composes in both verse and prose, both orally—“dist en chantant cest son nouvel” (122, 153) [she said as she sang this new song]—and in writing: “je veul escripre un lay nouvel.” (167, 251) [I want to write a new lai.]