Dictionary.net

A French poet; born at Lorris, about 1211; died between 1240 and 1260. He appears to have been about 25 when he wrote the first part of the famous "Roman de la Rose". This poem has been the subject of extravagant eulogy until well within the present century. It has to do with a knight who arrives at the Palace of Pleasure, and has varied experiences with Venus and her alluring but erratic companions. The rose in the story has no particular meaning, though the hero's task is to pluck it. The poem is in two parts, the last being from the pen of Jean de Meung.