[3] It is not to be confused with the Folie Tristan de Berne, a different medieval poem on the same subject, each work taking its name from the city in which the manuscript is now kept.
Again Tristan reminisces at length and in detail about the life Ysolt and he formerly led together as illicit lovers, Mark's discovery of their love and banishment of them, and his recall of them when he was persuaded of their innocence.
[6] The Anglo-Norman scribe was distinctly careless, and his poor sense of rhythm led him not to notice that his frequent accidental addition or omission of words rendered lines unmetrical.
[10][11] The poem was finally edited and published by Francisque Michel in his The Poetical Romances of Tristan in French, in Anglo-Norman and in Greek Composed in the XII and XIII Centuries (1838).
Ernest Hœpffner, in his edition of the Folie Tristan de Berne, claimed that it was the source of the Oxford version; but other critics have concluded that both derive from some lost third poem.
[17] The author shows relatively little inclination to make a wonder-tale of his story, but, unlike most other British poets of his time, a strong interest in romantic love, a theme which he links with that of death.
[18] The poet explores the idea of love as a form of madness: Tristan's assumption of the role of imbecile as a disguise is only partly deliberate, yet he also exemplifies the belief that fools may be wiser than sane men, and may give voice to truths that would otherwise go unsaid.