Chardri Explained

Chardri (late 12th–early 13th centuries) was an Anglo-Norman poet, probably from western England.^[1] His pen name is probably an anagram of Richard.^[2]

Three of his poems, all in rhyming octosyllabic couplets, have survived:

• La vie de seint Josaphaz presents Barlaam and Josaphat, a Christianized version of the life of Buddha, 2954 lines^[3]
• La vie des set dormanz records the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, 1898 lines^[4]
• Le petit plet, 1780 lines^[5]

His work is transmitted in manuscripts alongside The Owl and the Nightingale.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Book: Laïd, Baptiste . Barlaam et Josaphat, Les sept dormants et Le petit plet . 2024-03-21 . Honoré Champion . 9782380960648 . Paris . fr.
2. Book: Cartlidge, Neil . The works of Chardri. Three poems in the French of thirteenth-century England: The life of the seven sleepers, the life of St. Josaphaz and the little debate . 2015 . 978-0-86698-513-0 . Tempe, Arizona . Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies . 900333024.
3. Rutledge . Timothy James Stuart . A critical edition of "La vie de seint Josaphaz", a thirteenth-century poem by the Anglo-Norman poet Chardri . 1973 . PhD . University of Toronto . . en.
4. Book: Merrilees, Brian . La vie des set dormanz . 1977 . 0-905474-02-3 . London . Anglo-Norman Text Society . 4008070.
5. Book: Merrilees, Brian . Le petit plet . 1970 . 0-631-11990-6 . Oxford . Blackwell . 82561.
6. Cartlidge . Neil . 1997 . The composition and social context of Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29 (II) and London, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula A. ix . 43630065 . Medium Ævum . 66 . 2 . 250–269 . 10.2307/43630065.