"Chevrefoil" is one of Marie's several lais concerning an adulterous love.
A testament to Marie's popularity appears in Gerbert's Continuation to Chrétien de Troyes's unfinished romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, which contains an episode in which a disguised Tristan plays the lay of "Chevrefoil" to his unsuspecting lover at a tournament. Though there are several allusions to the greater Tristan and Iseult cycle, such as Tintagel and the character Brangaine, Marie is unique in placing Tristan's homeland in South Wales, rather than Cornwall or the fictitious Lyonesse. Similar episodes to that recounted in "Chevrefoil" appear in longer Tristan poems it is feasible that Marie drew her material from a longer source. According to Marie, "Chevrefoil" is the French name for the poem it is called "Gotelef" ( Goatleaf) in English. Marie says the original author of the lai was none other than Tristan, an accomplished bard who put his thoughts into a song at Iseult's request. Lines 68 through 78 compare Tristan and Iseult's love to the intertwining of the honeysuckle with the hazel the two plants grow so entwined that both will die if they are separated. When it comes time to leave, the lovers weep, and Tristan returns to Wales to wait for his uncle's word. The lovers spend their time together, and Iseult tells Tristan how he can win back his uncle's favor. Immediately recognizing the branch as Tristan's, Iseult asks her party to stop and rest, and goes out in the woods with only her faithful servant Brangaine. Marie says Iseult will be on the lookout for such a sign, since Tristan has contacted her in a similar manner in the past. On the day the king's court sets out, Tristan takes to the woods, where he cuts a hazel branch into an appropriate signal and carves his name into it. After pining away for a year, Tristan hears news that Mark is planning a great feast for Pentecost at Tintagel, and Iseult will be present. Tristan has been exiled from Cornwall by his uncle Mark for his adulterous transgressions, and is forced to return to his homeland in South Wales. The story tells of the love between the knight Tristan and his uncle's wife Iseult, which, according to Marie, was so pure that it eventually caused their deaths on the same day. The lai begins with a statement that others have sung it previously, and that the author has seen it in written form. "Chevrefoil" consists of 118 lines and survives in two manuscripts, Harley 978 or MS H, which contains all the Lais, and in Bibliothèque Nationale, nouv. The title means " honeysuckle," a symbol of love in the poem. The eleventh poem in the collection called The Lais of Marie de France, its subject is an episode from the romance of Tristan and Iseult. " Chevrefoil" is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France.
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