Laustic

One of Marie de France's shorter lais, Laustic translates to nightingale in English. This lai captures multiple fairy tale aspects, including the lady entrapped by a spiteful husband, which can be found in more of de France's lais. Although the lady is married, she is in love with the neighbor and thanks to his persistance and reputation, she feels the same way. They never actually meet, but arise in the night to communicate and exchange gifts. The husband questions why she arises in the night and she claims she gets up to listen to the nightingale. The husbands jealousy arises and he decides to capture the nightingale and have it killed. Once he does so, the lady asks a servant to bring the dead bird over to her neighboring lover and he obeys. The knight understands and is saddened to see the dead bird. He puts it in a small coffin and carried it with him from then on. The nightingale can be seen to have two different meanings; a symbol of love or a symbol of doom. I believe it symbolizes love. When the bird's life ended, so did the love between the neighbor and the wife.