Louise Labé

Louise Labé

Louise Labé, (c. 1520 or 1522, Lyon - April 25, 1566, Parcieux-en-Dombes), also identified as La Belle Cordière, was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born at Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet. A recent book has argued that the poetry asscribed to her was a feminist creation of a number of French male poets of the Renaissance (see below).

Biography

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.

From 1584, the name of Louise Labé became associated with a courtisan 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 courtisan 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 1608. 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.

The Huchon hypothesis

In her 2006 book "Louise Labé: une créature de papier" (Droz), the eminent Sorbonne professor Mireille Huchon maintains that Louise Labé was an imaginary creation by the Lyonnais poets Maurice Scève, Olivier de Magny, Claude de Taillemont, Jacques Peletier du Mans, Guillaume des Autels, and others, and by the publisher Jean de Tournes capitalizing on the period's literary fascination with the classical poet Sappho and on a publication (1533) of poems attributed to Petrarch's "Laura" (Laura de Sade; the poems were in fact the work of a descendant of Laura). [Mireille Huchon (2006) "Louise Labé: une créature de papier" (Droz)."] The name "Louise" may have been coined by Clément Marot when, in 1542, seeking a French equivalent of Petrarch's praise of "Laura", he proposed to the Lyonnais circle that they "louer Louise" (praise Louise). According to Huchon, the courtesan did exist, but did not write the poems attributed to her. One critic Marc Fumaroli called Huchon's argument "irrefutable" in a book review in "Le Monde". [Fumaroli, "Le Monde", May 5, 2006.]

However, other critics do not concur with Huchon's view. First, her theory, although intriguing, remains speculative; she reinterprets existing historical documents, rather than citing new evidence. Second, while Labé's corpus does contain verbal echoes of works by Scève and other writers in his circle, these echoes, typical of Renaissance practices of intertextuality, may indicate that Labé collaborated and interacted with her poetic contemporaries, and do not necessarily indicate that her contemporaries went so far as to ghost-write her works. Finally, a unique stylistic voice and a remarkable consistency of vocabulary and themes are found across all of the poems, which renders it less likely that individual poems were composed by more than one person. [The French webpage entitled "Louise Labé attaquée!" ("Louise Labe attacked!") at [http://www.siefar.org/ActuSIEFAR-Labe.html] is collecting published responses to Huchon's book and making them available online. Scholars who disagree with part or all of Huchon's theory include Emmanuel Buron, "Claude de Taillemont et les "Escriz de divers Poëtes à la louenge de Louïze Labé Lionnoize." Discussion critique de "Louise Labé, une créature de papier", de Mireille Huchon," "L'Information littéraire" 2, 2006, p. 38-46 ( [http://www.siefar.org/RessourcesEtudes/Buron-Louise-Labe.pdf] ); Henri Hours and Bernard Plessy, "Sur Louise Labé, rien de nouveau," "Le Bulletin des Lettres," October 2006, p. 3-5 ( [http://www.siefar.org/ActuSIEFAR-Labe.html#anchor%20Hours] );Madeleine Lazard, "Droit de réponse envoyé au "Monde des livres," non publié" ( [http://www.siefar.org/ActuSIEFAR-Labe.html#ancre%20Lazard] ); Daniel Martin, "Louise Labé est-elle ‘une creature de papier’?" "Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance" 63, December 2006, p. 7-37 ( [http://www.siefar.org/RessourcesEtudes/Martin-Louise-Labe.pdf] ); and Eliane Viennot, "Notice sur Louise Labé," "Théâtre de femmes de l’Ancien Régime," December 2006, p. 377-379 ( [http://www.siefar.org/ActuSIEFAR-Labe.html#anchor%20Viennot] ).] The debate is ongoing.

Notes

References

*fr icon [http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3260,36-770476@51-734663,0.html Marc Fumaroli's review of Mireille Huchon's book] , published in Le Monde, May 5, 2006
*Louise Labe, "Complete Poetry and Prose," ed. and trans. Deborah Lesko Baker and Annie Finch, University of Chicago Press, 2006.
*fr icon Louise Labe, "Œuvres completes," ed. Francois Rigolot, Flammarion, 2004. Critical edition and biographical chronology.
*fr icon Madeleine Lazard, "Louise Labe Lyonnaise," Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2004. Biography.

ee also

*Pernette Du Guillet

External links

*fr icon [http://www.siefar.org/DictionnaireSIEFAR/SFLabe.html Biography, by Françoise Charpentier]
*fr icon [http://www.biblioweb.org/-LABE-Louise-.html Biography, Analysis]
* [http://www.lib.virginia.edu/rmds/collections/gordon/literary/labe/index.html University of Virginia's Gordon Project Louise Labe page] Contains digital images of a 1556 edition of her works and background information.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Louise Labe — Louise Labé Louise Labé, portrait gravé par Pierre Woeiriot (1555), BNF. Louise Labé (1524 à Lyon 25 avril 1566 à Parcieux en Dombes) est une poétesse française. Surnommée « La Belle Cordière », elle fait partie des poètes en… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Louise Labé — Louise Labé. Louise Labé, nacida Louise Charly (Lyon, 1525 Parcieux en Dombes, 25 de abril de 1566), poetisa francesa perteneciente a la Escuela Lionesa del Renacimiento, conocida también bajo los sobrenombres de la Safo de Lyon , la Ninfa del… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Louise Labe — Louise Labé Louise Labé (* ca. 1524 in Lyon; † 25. April 1566 in Parcieux en Dombes bei Lyon) war eine französische Autorin. Zu ihren Lebzeiten vor allem als emanzipierte Frau avant la lettre bekannt, gilt sie seit ihrer Wiederentdeckung gegen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Louise Labé — (* ca. 1524 in Lyon; † 25. April 1566 in Parcieux en Dombes bei Lyon) war eine französische Autorin. Zu ihren Lebzeiten vor allem als emanzipierte Frau avant la lettre bekannt, gilt sie seit ihrer Wiederentdeckung gegen Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Louise Labé — (1525 en Lyon, Francia 25 de abril de 1566 en Parcieux en Dombes, Francia). Conocida con el sobrenombre de la bella cordelera (La Belle Cordière), forma parte del famoso grupo de poetas que desarrollan su actividad en Lyon durante el Renacimiento …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Louise Labé — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Labé et Labbé. Louise Labé …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Allée Louise-Labé — 19e arrt …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Prix Louise-Labe — Prix Louise Labé Le Prix Louise Labé est un prix francophone créé en 1964 par Edith Mora et Pierrette Micheloud. Ce prix avait un but très précis : donner l essor à un poète qui avait déjà publié deux ou trois recueils remarqués, mais dont l …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Prix Louise Labé — Le Prix Louise Labé est un prix francophone créé en 1964 par Edith Mora et Pierrette Micheloud. Ce prix avait un but très précis : donner l essor à un poète qui avait déjà publié deux ou trois recueils remarqués, mais dont l auteur n était… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Prix louise-labé — Le Prix Louise Labé est un prix francophone créé en 1964 par Edith Mora et Pierrette Micheloud. Ce prix avait un but très précis : donner l essor à un poète qui avait déjà publié deux ou trois recueils remarqués, mais dont l auteur n était… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”