Jean Bodel

Jean Bodel, also spelled Jehan Bodel, was an Old French poet who lived in Arras from about 1165 to about 1210. He wrote chansons de geste, including the Chanson des Saisnes about Charlemagne's war with the Saxons and their leader Widukind, and many fabliaux. His miracle play Le Jeu de saint Nicolas, probably first performed in Arras on 5 December 1200, tells of a Christian whose prayers to a statue of Saint Nicolas protect a pagan king's treasury from thieves, leading the king and his army to convert. Bodel is the first person of record to sort the legendary themes of medieval literature into the three Matters, those of Rome, Britain and France. After he contracted leprosy in 1202 or 1205 and entered a leprosarium, he wrote his most personal work, the farewell Les Congés.