Besides the Chansons de Geste pertaining to various phases of this
theme, the Breton cycle includes many shorter works termed lais, which
also treat of love, and were composed by Marie de France or her
successors. The best known of all these "cante-fables" is the idyllic
Aucassin et Nicolette, of which a full account is embodied in this
volume.

One of the best samples of the domestic epic in this cycle is the
twelfth century Amis and Amiles, in which two knights, born and
baptized on the same day, prove so alike as to become interchangeable.
Still, brought up in separate provinces, Amis and Amiles meet and
become friends only when knighted by Charlemagne, whose graciousness
toward them rouses the jealousy of the felon knight Hardré. When
Charlemagne finally offers his niece to Amiles (who, through modesty,
passes her on to Amis), the felon accuses the former of treacherously
loving the king's daughter Bellicent, and thereupon challenges him to
fight. Conscious of not being a traitor, although guilty of loving the
princess, Amiles dares not accept this challenge, and changes places
with Amis, who personates him in the lists. Because Amis thus commits
perjury to rescue his friend from a dilemma, he is in due time
stricken with leprosy, deserted by his wife, and sorely ill treated by
his vassals. After much suffering, he discovers his sole hope of cure
consists in bathing in the blood of the children which in the
meanwhile have been born to Amiles and to his princess-wife. When the
leper Amis reluctantly reveals this fact to his friend Amiles, the
latter, although broken-hearted, unhesitatingly slays his children.
Amis is immediately cured, and both knights hasten to church together
to return thanks and inform the mother of the death of her little
ones. The princess rushes to their chamber to mourn over their
corpses, only to discover that meantime they have been miraculously