ADAM (or ADAN) DE LE

See also:

• HALE, EDWARD EVERETT (1822-1909)
• HALE, HORATIO (1817–1896)
• HALE, JOHN PARKER (1806–1873)
• HALE, NATHAN (1756-1776)
• HALE, SIR MATTHEW (1609-1676)
• HALE, WILLIAM GARDNER (1849- )

HALE (died c. 1288)  , French trouvere, was born at Arras . His patronymic is generally modernized to La Halle, and he was commonly, known to his contemporaries as Adam d'Arras or Adam le Bossu, sometimes simply as Le Bossu d'Arras . His father, Henri de le Hale, was a well-known citizen of Arras, and Adam studied grammar, theology and music at the Cistercian abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambrai . Father and son had their share in the civil discords in Arras, and for a short time took refuge in Douai . Adam had been destined for the church, but renounced this intention, and married a certain Marie, who figures in many of his songs, rondeaux, motets and jeux-partis . Afterwards he joined the household of Robert II., count of Artois; and then was attached to Charles of Anjou, brother of Charles IX., whose fortunes he followed in Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Italy . At the court of Charles, after he became king of Naples, he wrote his Jeu de Robin et Marion, the most famous of his works . He died between 1285 and 1288 . Adam's shorter pieces are accompanied by music, of which a171 transcript in modern notation, with the original score, is given in Coussemaker's edition . His Jeu de Robin et Marion is cited as the earliest French play with music on a secular subject . The pastoral, which tells how Marion resisted the knight, and remained faithful to Robert the shepherd, is based on an old chanson, Robin m'aime, Robin m'a . It consists of dialogue varied by refrains already current in popular song .

The melodies to which these are set have, the,

character of folk-music, and are more spontaneous and melodious than the more elaborate music of his songs and motets . A modern adaptation, by Julien Tiersot, was played at Arras by a company from the Paris Opera Comique on the occasion of a festival in 1896 in honour of Adam de le Hale . His other play, Le jeu Adan or Le jeu de la Feuillee (c . 1262), is a satirical drama in which he introduces himself, his father and the citizens of Arras with their peculiarities . His works include a Conga, or satirical farewell to the city of Arras, and an unfinished chanson de geste in honour of Charles of Anjou, Le roi de Sicile, begun in 1282; another short piece, Le jeu du pelerin, is sometimes attributed to him . The only MS. which contains the whole of Adam's work is the La Valliere MS . (No . 25,566) in ,the Bibliotheque Nationale; Paris, dating from the latter half of the 13th century . Many of his pieces are also contained in Douce MS . 308, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford . His Euvres completes (1872) were edited by E. de Coussemaker . See also an article by Paulin Paris in the Histoire litteraire de la France (vol. xx. pp .

638-675) ; G . Raynaud, Recueil

des motets francais des XIIe et XIIIe siecles (1882); Canchons et Partures des Adan delle Hale (Halle, 1900), a critical edition by Rudolf Berger; an edition of Adam's two jeux in Monmerque and Michel's Theatre frangais au moyen dge (1842) ; E . Langlois, Le jeu de Robin et Marion (1896), with a translation in modern French ; . A . Guesnon, La Satire a Arras au XIIIe siecle (1900); and a full bibliography of works on the subject in No . 6 of the Bibliotheque de bibliographies critiques, by Henri Guy .