Cligès (also Cligés) is a poem by the medieval French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from around 1176.
Chrétien used many Latin writing techniques such as nature topos, portraiture, conjointure, amplificato and interpretatio to convey a realistic romance story.
While at court, Alexander gains favor with King Arthur, is knighted, and assists in retaking Windsor Castle from the traitorous Count Angrès.
During his time at court, Alexander meets Arthur's niece, Soredamors; they quickly fall in love, but neither party is able to tell the other how they feel.
Lacy claims that the actions of Cligès and Fenice may seem to represent courtliness or chivalric traits, but at their core they are not moral.
Nelson, like Lacy, claims that Fenice's actions are not moral, even though readers are expected to celebrate her happy ending with Cligès.
Nelson finds that such atonement takes its form in the presentation of the three doctors who attempt to take care of Fenice when she feigns illness; Nelson claims that the reader "heartily approves" when the doctors start to hurt Fenice in an effort to discover what her true plot is.
[7] Because of such approval, the reader therefore views the torture that Fenice experiences as a form of atonement or necessary punishment for her immoral actions.
Another scholar, Lucie Polak, sees the text as a reworking of Tristan and Isolde, but also suggests that Cligès may be modeled on Narcissus.
[10] This prose version differs from the original in several aspects, and the story is thought to have been adapted to the cultural and political circumstances of the Burgundian court at the time.