[GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT], c. 1300-1377, was born in a little village of Machaut. In 1323 he entered the service of Jean de Luxembourg as secretary. In 1330 he became a canon at Verdun Cathedral; in 1332, a canon at Arras Cathedral; and in 1337, a canon at Rheims Cathedral. He was famous as composer and poet and wrote a mass for the coronation of Charles V in 1349. Much of his poetry shows the strong influence of the Roman de la Rose and the Ovide Moralisé besides the classical influence of Ovid. Among these are the Dit dou Vergier, Le Jugement dou roy de Behaigne, Le Remede de Fortune, written before 1342. In 1342 he wrote Le Dit dou lion; in 1349 he composed Le Jugement dou roy de Navarre in honor of Charles V. In 1356 Charles became prisoner of the king of France, and Guillaume wrote for him Le Confort d'ami. His epic poem, La Prise d'Alexandrie (1369) celebrates the exploits of Pierre de Lusignan, king of Cyprus and Jerusalem. In 1362, he wrote Le Livre de la Fonteinne amoureuse, also known as Le Dit de la Fonteinne amoureuse.

Chaucer does not mention Guillaume de Machaut although they were contemporaries and he used Guillaume's work extensively. Kittredge and Severs have shown the extent of Chaucer's indebtedness in his poem The Book of the Duchess. Machaut was one of the finest poets of his day, and Chaucer could not have escaped his influence. Chaucer says he translated The Book of the Lion, ParsT 1085, a reference, most likely, to Machaut's Dit dou lion. F.M. Dear suggests that this translation may have been made for Lionel, Duke of Clarence, in whose household Chaucer had been a page. The work has not survived.