Jehan Bretel

Jehan Bretel (c. 1210 – 1272) was a trouvère who wrote eight known chansons courtoises.

Quotes

• Who is more fortunate, he who is clever enough to deceive his mistress, or he who is deceived by her without knowing it?
  • Question from a tenso or jeu-parti, addressed to Jehan de Grieviler. Other rhetorical questions from this genre include "Is a lover better off if he is deaf, or blind?" and "Is the chance of a big inheritance worth sacrificing for a fine dish of peas and bacon?" Quoted by Henry Prunières, A New History of Music, translated by Edward Lockspeiser (New York: Macmillan, 1943), p. 38, from Jean Beck, La Musique des Troubadours (1908)

External links

• F. Marion Crawford, "With the Immortals", Ch. 4, in Macmillan's Magazine, vol. 56 (May–October 1887), p. 142