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Œuvres Poétiques de Louise Labé et Rymes de Pernette du Guillet
"Le présent recueil est formé de trois corpus poétiques : les oeuvres des deux femmes-poètes qui illustrent la poésie d'amour à un moment privilégié de la Renaissance lyonnaise (les années 1545-1555), et, en contrepoint, un choix de Blasons du Corps féminin. Le centre de ce livre devrait être, à nos yeux, les Poésies de Louise Labé, le plus court de ces trois corpus ; nous souhaitons montrer comment cette oeuvre brève et fulgurante tranche, par son originalité et son ton, sur cet ensemble, dont l'unité profonde reste pourtant celle d'un discours de l'amour, ou, plus exactement, de la relation des sexes. Nous faisons précéder l'oeuvre de Louise Labé des Rymes de Pernette du Guillet, publiées dix ans auparavant. Ces deux recueils sont donnés dans leur intégralité. Des Blasons du Corps, on ne donnera qu'un choix, sous forme de dossier." Françoise Charpentier.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Louise Labé
91 books21 followersThe precise date of Louise Labé's birth is unknown. She is born somewhere between 1516 (her parents marriage) and 1523 (her mother's death).
Both her father and her stepmother Antoinette Taillard (whom Pierre Charly married following Etiennette Roybet's death in 1523) were illiterate, but Labé received an education in Latin, Italian and music, perhaps in a convent school.
At the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, she is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.
Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, a ropemaker.
She became active in a circle of Lyonnais poets and humanists grouped around the figure of Maurice Scève. Her Œuvres were printed in 1555, by the renowned Lyonnais printer Jean de Tournes.
In addition to her own writings, the volume contained twenty-four poems in her honor, authored by her male contemporaries and entitled Escriz de divers poetes, a la louenge de Louize Labe Lionnoize.
The authors of these praise poems (not all of whom can be reliably identified) include Maurice Scève, Pontus de Tyard, Claude de Taillemont, Clement Marot, Olivier de Magny, Jean-Antoine de Baif, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Antoine du Moulin, and Antoine Fumee.
The poet Olivier de Magny, in his Odes of 1559, praised Labé (along with several other women) as his beloved; and from the nineteenth century onward, literary critics speculated that Magny was in fact Labé's lover. However, the male beloved in Labé's poetry is never identified by name, and may well represent a poetic fiction rather than a historical person.
Magny's Odes also contained a poem (A Sire Aymon) that mocked and belittled Labé's husband (who had died by 1557), and by extension Labé herself.
In 1564, the plague broke out in Lyon, taking the lives of some of Labé's friends. In 1565, suffering herself from bad health, she retired to the home of her friend Thomas Fortin, a banker from Florence, who witnessed her will (a document that is extant).
She died in 1566, and was buried on her country property close to Parcieux-en-Dombes, outside Lyon.
[edit:]Debated connection with "la Belle Cordière"
From 1584, the name of Louise Labé became associated with a courtesan called "la Belle Cordière" (first described by Philibert de Vienne in 1547; the association with Labé was solidified by Antoine Du Verdier in 1585).
This courtesan was a colorful and controversial figure during her own lifetime. In 1557 a popular song on the scandalous behavior of La Cordière was published in Lyon, and 1560 Jean Calvin referred to her cross-dressing and called her a plebeia meretrix or common whore.
Debate on whether or not Labé was or was not a courtesan began in the sixteenth century, and has continued up to the present day. However, in recent decades, critics have focused increasing attention on her literary works.
Her Œuvres include two prose works: a feminist preface, urging women to write, that is dedicated to a young noblewoman of Lyon, Clemence de Bourges; and a dramatic allegory in prose entitled Debat de Folie et d'Amour, which draws on Erasmus' Praise of Folly.
Her poetry consists of three elegies in the style of the Heroides of Ovid, and twenty-four sonnets that draw on the traditions of Neoplatonism and Petrarchism.
The Debat, the most popular of her works in the sixteenth century, inspired one of the fables of Jean de la Fontaine and was translated into English by Robert Greene in 1584.
The sonnets, remarkable for their frank eroticism, have been her most famous works following the early modern period, and were translated into German by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Both her father and her stepmother Antoinette Taillard (whom Pierre Charly married following Etiennette Roybet's death in 1523) were illiterate, but Labé received an education in Latin, Italian and music, perhaps in a convent school.
At the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, she is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.
Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, a ropemaker.
She became active in a circle of Lyonnais poets and humanists grouped around the figure of Maurice Scève. Her Œuvres were printed in 1555, by the renowned Lyonnais printer Jean de Tournes.
In addition to her own writings, the volume contained twenty-four poems in her honor, authored by her male contemporaries and entitled Escriz de divers poetes, a la louenge de Louize Labe Lionnoize.
The authors of these praise poems (not all of whom can be reliably identified) include Maurice Scève, Pontus de Tyard, Claude de Taillemont, Clement Marot, Olivier de Magny, Jean-Antoine de Baif, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Antoine du Moulin, and Antoine Fumee.
The poet Olivier de Magny, in his Odes of 1559, praised Labé (along with several other women) as his beloved; and from the nineteenth century onward, literary critics speculated that Magny was in fact Labé's lover. However, the male beloved in Labé's poetry is never identified by name, and may well represent a poetic fiction rather than a historical person.
Magny's Odes also contained a poem (A Sire Aymon) that mocked and belittled Labé's husband (who had died by 1557), and by extension Labé herself.
In 1564, the plague broke out in Lyon, taking the lives of some of Labé's friends. In 1565, suffering herself from bad health, she retired to the home of her friend Thomas Fortin, a banker from Florence, who witnessed her will (a document that is extant).
She died in 1566, and was buried on her country property close to Parcieux-en-Dombes, outside Lyon.
[edit:]Debated connection with "la Belle Cordière"
From 1584, the name of Louise Labé became associated with a courtesan called "la Belle Cordière" (first described by Philibert de Vienne in 1547; the association with Labé was solidified by Antoine Du Verdier in 1585).
This courtesan was a colorful and controversial figure during her own lifetime. In 1557 a popular song on the scandalous behavior of La Cordière was published in Lyon, and 1560 Jean Calvin referred to her cross-dressing and called her a plebeia meretrix or common whore.
Debate on whether or not Labé was or was not a courtesan began in the sixteenth century, and has continued up to the present day. However, in recent decades, critics have focused increasing attention on her literary works.
Her Œuvres include two prose works: a feminist preface, urging women to write, that is dedicated to a young noblewoman of Lyon, Clemence de Bourges; and a dramatic allegory in prose entitled Debat de Folie et d'Amour, which draws on Erasmus' Praise of Folly.
Her poetry consists of three elegies in the style of the Heroides of Ovid, and twenty-four sonnets that draw on the traditions of Neoplatonism and Petrarchism.
The Debat, the most popular of her works in the sixteenth century, inspired one of the fables of Jean de la Fontaine and was translated into English by Robert Greene in 1584.
The sonnets, remarkable for their frank eroticism, have been her most famous works following the early modern period, and were translated into German by Rainer Maria Rilke.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
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January 10, 2022school reading.
November 5, 2023
attention ⚠️ public averti, très drôles les poèmes erotiques
August 24, 2023
Lue pour la fac
February 22, 2021
J'ai eu par moment de profondes connexions avec certains des sonnets de Labé. C'est un très bon recueil pétrarquiste, qui personnellement m'a beaucoup inspiré. Le style de Labé est beaucoup plus simple que Guillet, mais j'ai tout de même eu du mal à comprendre certaines formulations de langue. C'est un recueil difficile mais qui je pense une fois éclaircit peut se révéler être une poésie admirable.
March 1, 2024
Recueil de poésie sur le désir féminin au XVIe siècle. C'est intéressant d'avoir une œuvre qui présente deux poétesses lyonnaises (sans compter le collectif d'hommes à la fin) de la Renaissance, pour changer un peu de Paris.
Bon honnêtement, je suis malade ces jours-ci et ça a affecté ma lecture; j'en avais un peu marre, c'est un peu répétitif. Et le lexique à la fin du livre c'est pénible de s'amuser à faire des allers-retours.
2,75/5.
Bon honnêtement, je suis malade ces jours-ci et ça a affecté ma lecture; j'en avais un peu marre, c'est un peu répétitif. Et le lexique à la fin du livre c'est pénible de s'amuser à faire des allers-retours.
2,75/5.
July 13, 2024
Juste le débat de Folie et Amour : va être un enfer à commenter, mais un peu ce débat allégorique dont Lyon avait besoin donc je sais pas trop si je peux haïr jusqu'au bout le moyen français qui me force à checker les notes toutes les deux minutes. Mercure a très clairement dévoré le débat
March 30, 2019
La lecture en solitaire de ce reccueil fut agréable mais clairement j'aurais préféré l'étudier en cours ou en groupe car j'ai le sentiment d'être passée totalement à côté.
February 15, 2020
"et neanmoins, tant peu je m'en soucie,
que seulement ne les en remercie"
que seulement ne les en remercie"
April 8, 2020
Louise Labé is one of my favorite poets.
June 11, 2022
J’adore la poésie.
September 11, 2023
lu pour les cours, c’est un non. jsuis pas fan de la littérature du XVIe
November 5, 2023
Pour un public averti ⚠️ hilarant les poème érotique !
November 4, 2013
The poems in this book were interesting to read because they show how poetry was treated in the French Renaissance: its main themes, its codes and its inspirations. This book contains the works of Pernette de Guillet, whose poetry is simple and sometimes a bit childish, and Louise Labé, whose poetry is more mature and more refined. The last part of the book contains the works of male writers, contemporaries of de Guillet and Labé, and their writings on female body parts. The two views of the Renaissance woman are presented in those poems, from a female and almost feminist point of view, and from a masculine, sometimes patriarcal point of view.
March 28, 2016
Un bel enrichissement pour découvrir les codes de la Renaissance sous la plume de ces deux femmes !
October 29, 2024
elle a vraiment dit « pucelle ? moi ? »
November 30, 2024
J'ai beaucoup aimé, mais je ne sais pas vraiment comment développer. Je l'ai étudié en cours et ça a été mon cours préféré.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews