Medieval lyric poem of farewell. Two distinct types exist: 1) the congé d'amour (troubadour comjat) expressing farewell to love in general or to an unforthcoming lady in particular without going so far as the chanson de change, which indicates preference for a new mistress; 2) the congés d'Arras, three 13th-c. stanzaic poems without music written by Bodel, Baude Fastoul, and Adam de la Halle to take leave of friends when entering a leper colony or going elsewhere to study. This localized genre has few surviving antecedents, scarcely resembling the leper Gautier de Châtillon's lament ‘Versa est in luctum’ (composed c.1184) or Hélinand's Vers de la mort, whose rhyme-scheme it nevertheless adopts.
[Peter Davies]
