French Renaissance literature
Encyclopedia
For more information on historical developments in this period see: Renaissance
, History of France
, and Early Modern France
.
For information on French art and music of the period, see French Renaissance
.
French Renaissance literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in French (Middle French
) from the French invasion of Italy in 1494 to 1600, or roughly the period from the reign of Charles VIII of France
to the ascension of Henry IV of France
to the throne. The reigns of Francis I
(from 1515 to 1547) and his son Henry II
(from 1547 to 1559) are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance. After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de' Medici
and her sons Francis II
, Charles IX
and Henry III
, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the French Wars of Religion
between Huguenots and Catholics ravaged the country.
). The use of the printing press
(aiding the diffusion of works by ancient Latin and Greek authors; the printing press was introduced in 1470 in Paris, and in 1473 in Lyon), the development of humanism
and Neoplatonism
, and the discovery (through the wars in Italy and through Henry II’s marriage with Catherine de' Medici) of the cultivated refinement of the Italian courts (Baldassare Castiglione
’s book The Courtier was also particularly important in this respect) would profoundly modify the French literary landscape and the mental outlook (or “mentalité”) of the period. There is a slow evolution from the rude warrior class to a cultivated noble class (giving rise to the idea of the “honnête homme” in the seventeenth century). In all genres, there is a great interest in love (both physical and Platonic
) and in psychological and moral analysis.
This period saw: a proliferation of pamphlets, tracts, satires and memoirs; the success of short-story collections (“nouvelles”) as well as collections of oral tales and anecdotes (“propos and devis”); a public fascination with tragic tales from Italy (most notably those of Bandello); a considerable increase in the translating and publishing of contemporary European authors (especially Italians and Spaniards) compared to authors from the Middle Ages and classical antiquity; an important increase in the number of religious works sold (devotional books would beat out the “belles-lettres” as the most sold genre in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century); and finally, the publication of important works of moral and philosophical reflection.
The history of literature of the Renaissance is not monolithic: the royal court, the universities, the general public, the "noblesse de robe", the provincial noble, and the humanist all encountered different influences and developed different tastes. Humanist theater would come slowly to the general public; the old warrior class discovered court etiquette and polished manners only over time; and the extravagance of the Italian-inspired court was frequently criticized by detractors. Literacy itself is an important issue in the dissemination of the texts of the Renaissance: the culture of the 16th century remains profoundly oral, and the short story, the chivalric novel
and Rabelais
's works make this orality a central part of their style. Finally, the Renaissance book was a physical and economic object of great scarcity and — depending on its size and illustrations — of great prestige. A library such as Montaigne's was a rare occurrence for people other than lawyers and members of parliament who had had an elite education in the universities; for the public, the broadsheet or penny press
(with woodcut illustrations) sold door to door by colporters would have been their only access to the written word.
and Jean Molinet
), generally called “les Grands Rhétoriqueurs
” who continued to develop poetic techniques from the previous century. Soon however, the impact of Petrarch
(the sonnet cycle
addressed to an idealised lover, the use of amorous pardoxes), Italian poets in the French court (like Luigi Alamanni
), Italian Neoplatonism
and humanism
, and the rediscovery of certain Greek poets (such as Pindar
and Anacreon) would profoundly modify the French tradition. In this respect, the French poets Clément Marot
and Mellin de Saint-Gelais
are transitional figures: they are credited with some of the first sonnet
s in French, but their poems continue to employ many of the traditional forms.
The new direction of poetry is fully apparent in the work of the humanist Jacques Peletier du Mans
. In 1541, he published the first French translation of Horace
's Ars poetica and in 1547 he published a collection poems Œuvres poétiques, which included translations from the first two cantos of Homer
's Odyssey
and the first book of Virgil
's Georgics
, twelve Petrarch
ian sonnet
s, three Horacian
ode
s and a Martial-like
epigram
; this poetry collection also included the first published poems of Joachim Du Bellay
and Pierre de Ronsard
.
Around Ronsard, Du Bellay and Jean Antoine de Baïf there formed a group of radical young noble poets of the court (generally known today as La Pléiade
, although use of this term is debated). The character of their literary program was given in Du Bellay's manifesto, the "Defense and Illustration of the French Language" (1549) which maintained that French (like the Tuscan of Petrarch
and Dante
) was a worthy language for literary expression and which promulgated a program of linguistic and literary production (including the imitation of Latin and Greek genres) and purification. For some of the members of the Pléiade, the act of the poetry itself was seen as a form of divine inspiration (see Pontus de Tyard
for example), a possession by the muse
s akin to romantic passion, prophetic fervor or alcoholic delirium.
The forms that dominate the poetic production of the period are the Petrarch
ian sonnet cycle
(developed around an amorous encounter or an idealized woman) and the Horace
/Anacreon ode
(especially of the carpe diem
— life is short, seize the day — variety). Ronsard also tried early on to adapt the Pindar
ic ode into French. Throughout the period, the use of mythology
is frequent, but so too is a depiction of the natural world (woods, rivers). Other genres include the paradoxical encomium
(such as Remy Belleau
's poem prasing the oyster), the “blason
” of the female body (a poetic description of a body part), and propagandistic verse.
Du Bellay's greatest poems were written during his long stay in Rome
; his discovery of the ruined city, dismay at the corruption of the Papal court and loneliness gave rise to a sonnet cycle of remarkable sadness and severity (partially inspired by Ovid
's Tristia
).
Although Ronsard attempted a long epic poem of the origins of the French monarchy entitled La Franciade (modeled on Virgil
and Homer
), this experiment was largely judged a failure, and he remains most remembered today for his various collections of Amours (or love poems), Odes and Hymnes.
Jacques Peletier du Mans's later encyclopedic collection L'Amour des amours, consisting of a sonnet cycle
and a series of poems describing meteors, planets and the heavens, would influence the poets Jean Antoine de Baïf and Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas
(whose Semaine is a Baroque description of the creation of the world).
Several poets of the period — Jean Antoine de Baïf (who founded an "Académie de Poésie et de Musique
" in 1570), Blaise de Vigenère
and others — attempted to adapt into French the Latin
, Greek
or Hebrew
poetic meters; these experiments were called "vers mesurés" and "prose mesuré" (for more, see the article "musique mesurée
").
Although the royal court was the center of much of the century's poetry, Lyon
— the second largest city in France in the Renaissance — also had its poets and humanists, most notably Maurice Scève
, Louise Labé
, Olivier de Magny and Pontus de Tyard
. Scève's Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu — composed of 449 ten syllable ten line poems (dizains) and published with numerous engraved emblem
s — is exemplary in its use of amorous paradoxes and (often obscur) allegory
to describe the suffering of a lover.
Similarly, Madeleine Des Roches
and her daughter Catherine Des Roches
were the center of a literary circle based in Poitiers
between 1570 and 1587, and which included the poets Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Barnabé Brisson, René Chopin, Antoine Loisel, Claude Binet, Nicolas Rapin
and Odet de Turnèbe
.
Poetry at the end of the century was profoundly marked by the civil wars
: pessimism, dourness and a call for retreat from the world predominate (as in Jean de Sponde
). However, the horrors of the war were also to inspire one Protestant poet, Agrippa d'Aubigné
, to write a brilliant poem on the conflict:Les Tragiques.
Principal French poetry collections published in the 16th century:
), Fierabras, Ogier le Danois
, Perceforest
and Galien le Réthoré. From 1540 on however, the genre was dominated by foreign productions, most notably the Hispano-Portuguese multi-volume adventure novels Amadis de Gaule, Palmerin d'Olive, Primaléon de Grèce and others like them. The first of these, Amadis of Gaul — in its celebrated French translation/adaptation by Nicolas de Herberay des Essarts
— became the de facto code of conduct of the French court from Francis I through Henry IV and was emulated in jousts and in manners. Of similar tone and content (albeit in verse), the Italian epic poems Roland amoureux (Orlando Innamorato
) by Matteo Maria Boiardo
and Roland furieux (Orlando furioso
) by Ludovico Ariosto
(and, at the end of the century, Tasso
's Jerusalem Delivered
) were also enormous successes (French translations of these works were often in prose). Finally, the Italian Luigi Pulci
's Morgant le géant, a comic version of the chivalric novel, was an important model for Rabelais's giants.
The most notable French novels of the first half of the century are François Rabelais
’s masterpieces Pantagruel
, Gargantua and their sequels. Rabelais’s works blend both humanism (Erasmus, Thomas More
) and medieval farce (giants, heroic battles, scatological humor) in a manner that is grotesquely extravagant (the language and humor were often viewed as coarse by later centuries), but along with the buffoonery there is a keen satire of religious hypocrisy, political injustice and human doubt.
Alongside the chivalric, French literary tastes of the period were drawn to the amorous and pathetic, especially as depicted in the novels of Spaniards Diego de San Pedro
and Juan de Flores, themselves inspired by Boccaccio
's Lady Fiammeta and its psychologically insightful portrayal of a woman spurned. This sentimental vein would find admirable expression in parts of Hélisenne de Crenne
’s Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d’amours which blends sentimental and chivalric elements, humanist scholarship, orality and eloquence.
The foreign adventure novel would start to face competition from domestic French production in the second half of the century in the long works of authors Béroalde de Verville
and Nicolas de Montreux
. These authors (largely unread today) — like the authors of the later volumes of the Amadis cycle — abandoned many of the traditional chivalric modes, replacing them with techniques and incidents borrowed from two new sources of inspiration: the ancient Greek novel (Heliodorus
, Longus
and Achilles Tatius
) and the mixed-form (prose and verse) pastoral
novel from Italy and Spain (Jacopo Sannazaro
and Jorge de Montemayor
).
The novelty and inventiveness of the last years of the century are best seen in the anonymous La Mariane du Filomene (1596) which mixes the frame-tale, amorous sentiment, dreams, and pastoral elements to tell the story of a man wandering through the Parisian countryside trying to forget the woman who betrayed him.
Notable works of long prose fiction, including translations (preceded by an --) published in France in the sixteenth century:
(under various names: "conte", a tale; "nouvelle", a short story like the Italian novella
; "devis" and "propos", a spoken discussion; "histoire", a story). For the period, part of the attraction of the dialogued short story and the frame tale (with its fictional speakers discussing each other's stories) lies in their "performability" by someone reading out loud to a non-literate public and in their grab-bag and (frequently) digressive structure: these tales are capable of taking on all kinds of material, both sophisticated and vulgar.
The Decameron, the short story collection by the Italian author Boccaccio
— with its frame tale of nobles fleeing the plague and telling each other stories — had an enormous impact on French writers. The sister of Francis I
, Marguerite of Navarre
— who was the center of a progressive literary circle — undertook her own version ("the Heptameron
") which — although incomplete — is one of the masterpieces of the century. Other important writers of short stories include Noël du Fail
and Bonaventure des Périers
. As the century progressed, the use of oral discourse, multiple voices and table talk led to a dialogued form which often seems revolutionary and chaotic to modern ears.
The French reading public was also fascinated by the dark tragic novellas (“les histories tragiques”) of Bandello which were avidly adapted and emulated into the beginning of the seventeenth century (Jacques Yver, Vérité Habanc, Bénigne Poissenot, François de Rosset, Jean-Pierre Camus
).
Short story collections in France in the Renaissance:
For the first decades of the century, public theater remained largely tied to its long medieval heritage of mystery play
s, morality play
s, farce
s, and sotie
s, although the miracle play was no longer in vogue. Public performances were tightly controlled by a guild system. The guild “les Confrères de la Passion” had exclusive rights to theatrical productions of mystery plays in Paris; in 1548, fear of violence or blasphemy resulting from the growing religious rift in France forced the Paris Parliament to prohibit performances of the mysteries in the capital, although they continued to be performed in other places. Another guild, the “Enfants Sans-Souci” were in charge of farces and soties, as too the “Clercs de la Basoche” who also performed morality plays. Like the "Confrères de la Passion", "la Basoche
" came under political scrutiny (plays had to be authorized by a review board; masks or characters depicting living persons were not permitted), and they were finally suppressed in 1582. By the end of the century, only the "Confrères de la Passion" remained with exclusive control over public theatrical productions in Paris, and they rented out their theater at the Hôtel de Bourgogne to theatrical troupes for a high price. In 1599, they abandoned this privilege.
It is of note that, alongside the numerous writers of these traditional works (such as the farce writers Pierre Gringore
, Nicolas de La Chesnaye and André de la Vigne), Marguerite of Navarre
also wrote a number of plays close to the traditional mystery and morality play.
As early as 1503 however, original language versions of Sophocles
, Seneca
, Euripides
, Aristophanes
, Terence
and Plautus
were all available in Europe and the next forty years would see humanists and poets both translating these classics and adapting them. In the 1540s, the French university setting (and especially — from 1553 on — the Jesuit colleges) became host to a Neo-Latin theater (in Latin) written by professors such as George Buchanan
and Marc Antoine Muret which would leave a profound mark on the members of La Pléiade
. From 1550 on, one finds humanist theater written in French.
The influence of Seneca
was particularly strong in humanist tragedy. His plays — which were essentially chamber plays meant to be read for their lyrical passages and rhetorical oratory — brought to many humanist tragedies a concentration on rhetoric and language over dramatic action.
Humanist tragedy took two distinct directions:
During the height of the civil wars (1570–1580), a third category of militant theater appeared:
Along with their work as translators and adaptors of plays, the humanists also investigated classical theories of dramatic structure, plot, and characterization. Horace
was translated in the 1540s, but had been available throughout the Middle Ages. A complete version of Aristotle
's Poetics appeared later (first in 1570 in an Italian version), but his ideas had circulated (in an extremely truncated form) as early as the 13th century in Hermann the German's Latin translation of Averroes
' Arabic gloss, and other translations of the Poetics had appeared in the first half of the 16th century; also of importance were the commentaries on Aristotle's poetics by Julius Caesar Scaliger
which appeared in the 1560s. The fourth century grammarians Diomedes and Aelius Donatus
were also a source of classical theory. The sixteenth century Italians played a central role in the publishing and interpretation of classical dramatic theory, and their works had a major effect on French theater. Lodovico Castelvetro
's Aristote-based Art of Poetry(1570) was one of the first enunciations of the three unities; this work would inform Jean de la Taille
's Art de la tragedie (1572). Italian theater (like the tragedy of Gian Giorgio Trissino
) and debates on decorum (like those provoked by Sperone Speroni
's play Canace and Giovanni Battista Giraldi
's play Orbecche) would also influence the French tradition.
In the same spirit of imitation — and adaptation — of classical sources that had informed the poetic compositions of La Pléiade, French humanist writers recommended that tragedy should be in five acts and have three main characters of noble rank; the play should begin in the middle of the action (in medias res
), use noble language and not show scenes of horror on the stage. Some writers (like Lazare de Baïf
and Thomas Sébillet
) attempted to link the medieval tradition of morality plays and farces to classical theater, but Joachim du Bellay
rejected this claim and elevated classical tragedy and comedy to a higher dignity. Of greater difficulty for the theorists was the incorporation of Aristotle's notion of "catharsis
" or the purgation of emotions with Renaissance theater, which remained profoundly attached to both pleasing the audience and to the rhetorical aim of showing moral examples (exemplum
).
Étienne Jodelle
's Cléopâtre captive (1553) — which tells the impassioned fears and doubts of Cleopatra contemplating suicide — has the distinction of being the first original French play to follow Horace
's classical precepts on structure (the play is in five acts and respects more or less the unities of time, place and action) and is extremely close to the ancient model: the prologue is introduced by a shade, there is a classical chorus which comments on the action and talks directly to the characters, and the tragic ending is described by a messenger.
Mellin de Saint-Gelais
's translation of Gian Giorgio Trissino
's La Sophonisbe — the first modern regular tragedy based on ancient models which tells the story of the noble Sophonisba
's suicide (rather than be taken as captive by Rome) — was an enormous success at the court when performed in 1556.
Select list of authors and works of humanist tragedy:
(See the playwrights Antoine de Montchrestien
, Alexandre Hardy
and Jean de Schelandre
for tragedy around 1600-1610.)
Alongside tragedy, European humanists also adapted the ancient comedic tradition and as early as the 15th century, Renaissance Italy had developed a form of humanist Latin comedy. Although the ancients had been less theoretical about the comedic form, the humanists used the precepts of Aelius Donatus
(4th century A.D.), Horace
, Aristotle
and the works of Terence
to elaborate a set of rules: comedy should seek to correct vice by showing the truth; there should be a happy ending; comedy uses a lower style of language than tragedy; comedy does not paint the great events of states and leaders, but the private lives of people, and its principal subject is love.
Although some French authors kept close to the ancient models (Pierre de Ronsard
translated a part of Aristophanes
's "Plutus" at college), on the whole the French comedic tradition shows a great deal of borrowing from all sources: medieval farce (which continued to be immensely popular throughout the century), the short story, Italian humanist comedies and "La Celestina" (by Fernando de Rojas
). The most prolific of the French Renaissance comedic authors, Pierre de Larivey
, adapted Italian comedies of intrigue by the authors Ludovico Dolce, Niccolò Buonaparte, Lorenzino de' Medici
, Antonio Francesco Grazzini
, Vincenzo Gabbiani, Girolano Razzi, Luigi Pasqualigo, and Nicolὸ Secchi.
Select list of authors and works of Renaissance comedy:
In the last decades of the century, four other theatrical modes from Italy — which did not follow the rigid rules of classical theater – flooded the French stage:
By the end of the century, the most influential French playwright — by the range of his styles and by his mastery of the new forms — would be Robert Garnier
.
All of these eclectic traditions would continue to evolve in the "baroque" theater of the early 17th century, before French "classicism" would finally impose itself.
was the first essayist of modern times (The Essays
) and a remarkable writer on the human condition. Étienne Pasquier
's Recherches de la France was another monumental compendium of historical, political and cultural observations.
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme
wrote biographical sketches of the men and women of the court.
Jean Bodin
wrote a number of important works on political science.
Henri Estienne and his son Robert Estienne
were among the most important printers in France in the 16th century, and Robert Estienne's edition of the Bible was the first to use chapter and verse divisions.
The Catholic/Huguenot and civil/political conflicts of the last half of the century—the French Wars of Religion
-- generated a great deal of political, religious and satirical writing, including the Monarchomachs
' libels
.
The Satire Ménippée
(1593/1594) written by Nicolas Rapin
, Jean Passerat
and Florent Chrestien
, and edited/revised by Pierre Pithou
was a political and satirical work in prose and verse which criticized the excesses of the Catholic League
during the Wars of Religion.
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, History of France
History of France
The history of France goes back to the arrival of the earliest human being in what is now France. Members of the genus Homo entered the area hundreds of thousands years ago, while the first modern Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnons, arrived around 40,000 years ago...
, and Early Modern France
Early Modern France
Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...
.
For information on French art and music of the period, see French Renaissance
French Renaissance
French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
.
French Renaissance literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in French (Middle French
Middle French
Middle French is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from 1340 to 1611. It is a period of transition during which:...
) from the French invasion of Italy in 1494 to 1600, or roughly the period from the reign of Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
to the ascension of Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
to the throne. The reigns of Francis I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
(from 1515 to 1547) and his son Henry II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
(from 1547 to 1559) are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance. After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France....
and her sons Francis II
Francis II of France
Francis II was aged 15 when he succeeded to the throne of France after the accidental death of his father, King Henry II, in 1559. He reigned for 18 months before he died in December 1560...
, Charles IX
Charles IX of France
Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...
and Henry III
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the French Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
between Huguenots and Catholics ravaged the country.
Introduction
The sixteenth century in France was a remarkable period of literary creation (the language of this period is called Middle FrenchMiddle French
Middle French is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from 1340 to 1611. It is a period of transition during which:...
). The use of the printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
(aiding the diffusion of works by ancient Latin and Greek authors; the printing press was introduced in 1470 in Paris, and in 1473 in Lyon), the development of humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
and Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...
, and the discovery (through the wars in Italy and through Henry II’s marriage with Catherine de' Medici) of the cultivated refinement of the Italian courts (Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione, count of was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:Castiglione was born into an illustrious Lombard family at Casatico, near Mantua, where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo...
’s book The Courtier was also particularly important in this respect) would profoundly modify the French literary landscape and the mental outlook (or “mentalité”) of the period. There is a slow evolution from the rude warrior class to a cultivated noble class (giving rise to the idea of the “honnête homme” in the seventeenth century). In all genres, there is a great interest in love (both physical and Platonic
Platonism
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...
) and in psychological and moral analysis.
This period saw: a proliferation of pamphlets, tracts, satires and memoirs; the success of short-story collections (“nouvelles”) as well as collections of oral tales and anecdotes (“propos and devis”); a public fascination with tragic tales from Italy (most notably those of Bandello); a considerable increase in the translating and publishing of contemporary European authors (especially Italians and Spaniards) compared to authors from the Middle Ages and classical antiquity; an important increase in the number of religious works sold (devotional books would beat out the “belles-lettres” as the most sold genre in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century); and finally, the publication of important works of moral and philosophical reflection.
The history of literature of the Renaissance is not monolithic: the royal court, the universities, the general public, the "noblesse de robe", the provincial noble, and the humanist all encountered different influences and developed different tastes. Humanist theater would come slowly to the general public; the old warrior class discovered court etiquette and polished manners only over time; and the extravagance of the Italian-inspired court was frequently criticized by detractors. Literacy itself is an important issue in the dissemination of the texts of the Renaissance: the culture of the 16th century remains profoundly oral, and the short story, the chivalric novel
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
and Rabelais
François Rabelais
François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
's works make this orality a central part of their style. Finally, the Renaissance book was a physical and economic object of great scarcity and — depending on its size and illustrations — of great prestige. A library such as Montaigne's was a rare occurrence for people other than lawyers and members of parliament who had had an elite education in the universities; for the public, the broadsheet or penny press
Penny press
Penny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style papers produced in the middle of the 19th century.- History :As the East Coast's middle and working classes grew, so did the new public’s desire for news. Penny papers emerged as a cheap source with coverage of crime, tragedy, adventure, and gossip...
(with woodcut illustrations) sold door to door by colporters would have been their only access to the written word.
Poetry
Poetry in the first years of the sixteenth century is characterised by the elaborate sonorous and graphic experimentation and skillful word games of a number of Northern poets (such as Jean Lemaire de BelgesJean Lemaire de Belges
Jean Lemaire de Belges was a Walloon poet and historian who lived primarily in France.He was born in Hainaut , the godson and possibly a nephew of Jean Molinet, and spent some time with him at Valenciennes, where the elder writer held a kind of academy of poetry. Lemaire in his first poems calls...
and Jean Molinet
Jean Molinet
Jean Molinet was a French poet, chronicler, and composer. He is best remembered for his prose translation of Roman de la rose.Born in Desvres, which is now part of France, he studied in Paris...
), generally called “les Grands Rhétoriqueurs
Grands Rhétoriqueurs
The Grands Rhétoriqueurs or simply the "Rhétoriqueurs" is the name given to a group of poets from 1460 to 1520 working in Northern France, Flanders and the Duchy of Burgundy whose ostentatious poetic production was dominated by an extremely rich rhyme scheme and experimentation with assonance...
” who continued to develop poetic techniques from the previous century. Soon however, the impact of Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
(the sonnet cycle
Sonnet cycle
A sonnet cycle is a group of sonnets, arranged to address a particular person or theme, and designed to be read both as a collection of fully realized individual poems and as a single poetic work comprising all the individual sonnets....
addressed to an idealised lover, the use of amorous pardoxes), Italian poets in the French court (like Luigi Alamanni
Luigi Alamanni
Luigi Alamanni was an Italian poet and statesman. He was regarded as a prolific and versatile poet. He was credited with introducing the epigram into Italian poetry.-Biography:...
), Italian Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...
and humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
, and the rediscovery of certain Greek poets (such as Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
and Anacreon) would profoundly modify the French tradition. In this respect, the French poets Clément Marot
Clément Marot
Clément Marot was a French poet of the Renaissance period.-Youth:Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496-1497. His father, Jean Marot , whose more correct name appears to have been des Mares, Marais or Marets, was a Norman from the Caen...
and Mellin de Saint-Gelais
Mellin de Saint-Gelais
Mellin de Saint-Gelais was a French poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I of France.- Life :...
are transitional figures: they are credited with some of the first sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
s in French, but their poems continue to employ many of the traditional forms.
The new direction of poetry is fully apparent in the work of the humanist Jacques Peletier du Mans
Jacques Peletier du Mans
Jacques Pelletier du Mans, also spelled Peletier, in Latin: Peletarius , was a humanist, poet and mathematician of the French Renaissance....
. In 1541, he published the first French translation of Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
's Ars poetica and in 1547 he published a collection poems Œuvres poétiques, which included translations from the first two cantos of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
and the first book of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
's Georgics
Georgics
The Georgics is a poem in four books, likely published in 29 BC. It is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil, following his Eclogues and preceding the Aeneid. It is a poem that draws on many prior sources and influenced many later authors from antiquity to the present...
, twelve Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
ian sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
s, three Horacian
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
s and a Martial-like
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
; this poetry collection also included the first published poems of Joachim Du Bellay
Joachim du Bellay
Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
and Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
.
Around Ronsard, Du Bellay and Jean Antoine de Baïf there formed a group of radical young noble poets of the court (generally known today as La Pléiade
La Pléiade
The Pléiade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleiad of seven Alexandrian poets and...
, although use of this term is debated). The character of their literary program was given in Du Bellay's manifesto, the "Defense and Illustration of the French Language" (1549) which maintained that French (like the Tuscan of Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
and Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
) was a worthy language for literary expression and which promulgated a program of linguistic and literary production (including the imitation of Latin and Greek genres) and purification. For some of the members of the Pléiade, the act of the poetry itself was seen as a form of divine inspiration (see Pontus de Tyard
Pontus de Tyard
Pontus de Tyard was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was seigneur, but the exact year of his birth is uncertain. He became a friend of Antoine Héroet and Maurice Scève...
for example), a possession by the muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
s akin to romantic passion, prophetic fervor or alcoholic delirium.
The forms that dominate the poetic production of the period are the Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
ian sonnet cycle
Sonnet cycle
A sonnet cycle is a group of sonnets, arranged to address a particular person or theme, and designed to be read both as a collection of fully realized individual poems and as a single poetic work comprising all the individual sonnets....
(developed around an amorous encounter or an idealized woman) and the Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
/Anacreon ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
(especially of the carpe diem
Carpe diem
Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace that has become an aphorism. It is popularly translated as "seize the day"...
— life is short, seize the day — variety). Ronsard also tried early on to adapt the Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
ic ode into French. Throughout the period, the use of mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
is frequent, but so too is a depiction of the natural world (woods, rivers). Other genres include the paradoxical encomium
Encomium
Encomium is a Latin word deriving from the Classical Greek ἐγκώμιον meaning the praise of a person or thing. "Encomium" also refers to several distinct aspects of rhetoric:* A general category of oratory* A method within rhetorical pedagogy...
(such as Remy Belleau
Remy Belleau
Remy Belleau , was a poet of the French Renaissance. He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones....
's poem prasing the oyster), the “blason
Blason
Blason originally comes from the heraldic term blazon in French heraldry and means either the codified description of a coat of arms or the coat of arms itself...
” of the female body (a poetic description of a body part), and propagandistic verse.
Du Bellay's greatest poems were written during his long stay in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
; his discovery of the ruined city, dismay at the corruption of the Papal court and loneliness gave rise to a sonnet cycle of remarkable sadness and severity (partially inspired by Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Tristia
Tristia
The Tristia is a collection of letters written in elegiac couplets by the Augustan poet Ovid during his exile from Rome. Despite five books of his copious bewailing of his fate, the immediate cause of Augustus's banishment of the greatest living Latin poet to Pontus in 8 AD remains a mystery...
).
Although Ronsard attempted a long epic poem of the origins of the French monarchy entitled La Franciade (modeled on Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
and Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
), this experiment was largely judged a failure, and he remains most remembered today for his various collections of Amours (or love poems), Odes and Hymnes.
Jacques Peletier du Mans's later encyclopedic collection L'Amour des amours, consisting of a sonnet cycle
Sonnet cycle
A sonnet cycle is a group of sonnets, arranged to address a particular person or theme, and designed to be read both as a collection of fully realized individual poems and as a single poetic work comprising all the individual sonnets....
and a series of poems describing meteors, planets and the heavens, would influence the poets Jean Antoine de Baïf and Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas was a French poet. A Huguenot, he served under Henry of Navarre. He is known as an epic poet. La Sepmaine; ou, Creation du monde was a hugely influential hexameral work, relating the creation of the world and the history of man...
(whose Semaine is a Baroque description of the creation of the world).
Several poets of the period — Jean Antoine de Baïf (who founded an "Académie de Poésie et de Musique
Académie de Poésie et de Musique
The Académie de Poésie et de Musique, later re-named the Académie du Palais, was the first Academy in France. It was founded in 1570 under the auspices of Charles IX of France by the poet Jean-Antoine de Baïf and the musician Joachim Thibault de Courville....
" in 1570), Blaise de Vigenère
Blaise de Vigenère
Blaise de Vigenère was a French diplomat and cryptographer. The Vigenère cipher is so named due to the cipher being incorrectly attributed to him in the 19th century....
and others — attempted to adapt into French the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
or Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
poetic meters; these experiments were called "vers mesurés" and "prose mesuré" (for more, see the article "musique mesurée
Musique mesurée
Musique mesurée, or Musique mesurée à l'antique, was a style of vocal musical composition in France in the late 16th century. In musique mesurée, longer syllables in the French language were set to longer note values, and shorter syllables to shorter, in a homophonic texture but in a situation of...
").
Although the royal court was the center of much of the century's poetry, Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
— the second largest city in France in the Renaissance — also had its poets and humanists, most notably Maurice Scève
Maurice Scève
Maurice Scève , French poet, was born at Lyon, where his father practised law.He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch...
, Louise Labé
Louise Labé
Louise Labé, , 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...
, Olivier de Magny and Pontus de Tyard
Pontus de Tyard
Pontus de Tyard was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was seigneur, but the exact year of his birth is uncertain. He became a friend of Antoine Héroet and Maurice Scève...
. Scève's Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu — composed of 449 ten syllable ten line poems (dizains) and published with numerous engraved emblem
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
s — is exemplary in its use of amorous paradoxes and (often obscur) allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
to describe the suffering of a lover.
Similarly, Madeleine Des Roches
Madeleine Des Roches
Madeleine Des Roches was a French woman writer of the Renaissance. She was the mother of Catherine Fradonnet, called Catherine Des Roches , to whom she taught poetry, literature and ancient languages.Madeleine Neveu married André Fradonnet, seigneur Des Roches, the procurer of Poitiers around 1539...
and her daughter Catherine Des Roches
Catherine Des Roches
Catherine Fradonnet , called Catherine Des Roches, was a French woman writer of the Renaissance.She was the daughter of Madeleine Des Roches, née Madeleine Neveu and of André Fradonnet, seigneur Des Roches, the procurer of Poitiers...
were the center of a literary circle based in Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
between 1570 and 1587, and which included the poets Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Barnabé Brisson, René Chopin, Antoine Loisel, Claude Binet, Nicolas Rapin
Nicolas Rapin
Nicolas Rapin was a French Renaissance magistrate, royal officer, translator, poet and satirist, known for being one of the authors of the Satire Ménippée and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the Holy League during the Wars of Religion.- Life :Born at Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée into a family...
and Odet de Turnèbe
Odet de Turnèbe
Odet de Turnèbe was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the Greek scholar Adrien Turnèbe, Odet de Turnèbe received a solid education and was known, from an early age, for his intelligence and wit...
.
Poetry at the end of the century was profoundly marked by the civil wars
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
: pessimism, dourness and a call for retreat from the world predominate (as in Jean de Sponde
Jean de Sponde
Jean de Sponde was a Baroque French poet.- Biography :Born at Mauléon, in what is now Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Jean de Sponde was raised in an austere Protestant family in the Basque region of France with close relations with the royal court of Navarre...
). However, the horrors of the war were also to inspire one Protestant poet, Agrippa d'Aubigné
Agrippa d'Aubigné
Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné was a French poet, soldier, propagandist and chronicler. His epic poem Les Tragiques is widely regarded as his masterpiece.-Life:...
, to write a brilliant poem on the conflict:Les Tragiques.
Principal French poetry collections published in the 16th century:
- Clément MarotClément MarotClément Marot was a French poet of the Renaissance period.-Youth:Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496-1497. His father, Jean Marot , whose more correct name appears to have been des Mares, Marais or Marets, was a Norman from the Caen...
Adolescence clémentine (1532) - Various Blasons du corps féminin (1536)
- Clément MarotClément MarotClément Marot was a French poet of the Renaissance period.-Youth:Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496-1497. His father, Jean Marot , whose more correct name appears to have been des Mares, Marais or Marets, was a Norman from the Caen...
Psaumes (1541) - translation of the Psalms - Maurice ScèveMaurice ScèveMaurice Scève , French poet, was born at Lyon, where his father practised law.He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch...
Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu (1544) - Pernette Du GuilletPernette Du GuilletPernette Du Guillet was a female French poet of the Renaissance.She was born in a noble family and married in 1537 or 1538 a man with the last name Du Guillet. In the spring of 1536, she met the poet Maurice Scève , and she would serve as Scève's poetic muse, inspiring his Délie...
Rimes (1545) - Jacques Peletier du MansJacques Peletier du MansJacques Pelletier du Mans, also spelled Peletier, in Latin: Peletarius , was a humanist, poet and mathematician of the French Renaissance....
Œuvres poétiques (1547) - Mellin de Saint-GelaisMellin de Saint-GelaisMellin de Saint-Gelais was a French poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I of France.- Life :...
Œuvres (1547) - Joachim du BellayJoachim du BellayJoachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
Olive (1549–50) and the manifesto "Défense et illustration de la langue française" (1549) - Pierre de RonsardPierre de RonsardPierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
Odes (1550) - Pontus de TyardPontus de TyardPontus de Tyard was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was seigneur, but the exact year of his birth is uncertain. He became a friend of Antoine Héroet and Maurice Scève...
Le Solitaire premier (1552) - Jean Antoine de Baïf Les Amours (1552)
- Pierre de RonsardPierre de RonsardPierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
Les Amours (1552) - Pierre de RonsardPierre de RonsardPierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
Hymnes (1555–1556) - Jacques Peletier du MansJacques Peletier du MansJacques Pelletier du Mans, also spelled Peletier, in Latin: Peletarius , was a humanist, poet and mathematician of the French Renaissance....
"L'Amour des amours" and a manual on poetic composition "Art poétique français" (1555) - Louise LabéLouise LabéLouise Labé, , 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...
Œuvres (1555) - Pontus de TyardPontus de TyardPontus de Tyard was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was seigneur, but the exact year of his birth is uncertain. He became a friend of Antoine Héroet and Maurice Scève...
Livre de vers lyriques (1555) - Jean Antoine de Baïf Amour de Francine (1555)
- Remy BelleauRemy BelleauRemy Belleau , was a poet of the French Renaissance. He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones....
Petites inventions (1556) - Joachim du BellayJoachim du BellayJoachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
Antiquités de Rome (1558) - Joachim du BellayJoachim du BellayJoachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
Songe (1558) - Joachim du BellayJoachim du BellayJoachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
Regrets (1558) - Remy BelleauRemy BelleauRemy Belleau , was a poet of the French Renaissance. He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones....
La Bergerie (1565–1572) - Etienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La Boétie was a French judge, writer, anarchist, and "a founder of modern political philosophy in France." He "has been best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history's most notable friendships."-Life:"La Boétie was born in...
Vers français (1571) - Pierre de RonsardPierre de RonsardPierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
La Franciade (1572) - Philippe DesportesPhilippe DesportesPhilippe Desportes was a French poet.-Biography:Philippe Desportes was born in Chartres. While serving as secretary to the bishop of Le Puy he visited Italy, where he learned Italian poetry. This experience became a good account. On his return to France he attached himself to the duke of Anjou,...
Premières œuvres (1573) - Étienne JodelleÉtienne JodelleÉtienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin , French dramatist and poet, was born in Paris of a noble family.He attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic composition...
Œuvres et mélanges poétiques (1574) - Agrippa d'AubignéAgrippa d'AubignéThéodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné was a French poet, soldier, propagandist and chronicler. His epic poem Les Tragiques is widely regarded as his masterpiece.-Life:...
First draft of Les Tragiques (1575) - Nicolas RapinNicolas RapinNicolas Rapin was a French Renaissance magistrate, royal officer, translator, poet and satirist, known for being one of the authors of the Satire Ménippée and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the Holy League during the Wars of Religion.- Life :Born at Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée into a family...
Les Plaisirs du gentilhomme champestre (1575) - Remy BelleauRemy BelleauRemy Belleau , was a poet of the French Renaissance. He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones....
Pierres précieuses (1576) - Guillaume de Salluste Du BartasGuillaume de Salluste Du BartasGuillaume de Salluste Du Bartas was a French poet. A Huguenot, he served under Henry of Navarre. He is known as an epic poet. La Sepmaine; ou, Creation du monde was a hugely influential hexameral work, relating the creation of the world and the history of man...
La Semaine (1578) - Etienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La Boétie was a French judge, writer, anarchist, and "a founder of modern political philosophy in France." He "has been best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history's most notable friendships."-Life:"La Boétie was born in...
Sonnets (1580) - Jacques Peletier du MansJacques Peletier du MansJacques Pelletier du Mans, also spelled Peletier, in Latin: Peletarius , was a humanist, poet and mathematician of the French Renaissance....
"Louanges" (1581) - Jean Antoine de Baïf Chansonnettes mesurées (1586)
- Jean de SpondeJean de SpondeJean de Sponde was a Baroque French poet.- Biography :Born at Mauléon, in what is now Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Jean de Sponde was raised in an austere Protestant family in the Basque region of France with close relations with the royal court of Navarre...
Poèmes chrétiens (1588) - Jean-Baptiste Chassignet Le Mépris de la vie (1594)
- Marc de Papillon Œuvres (1597)
- Jean de SpondeJean de SpondeJean de Sponde was a Baroque French poet.- Biography :Born at Mauléon, in what is now Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Jean de Sponde was raised in an austere Protestant family in the Basque region of France with close relations with the royal court of Navarre...
Poésies posthumes (1597)
Long prose fiction
In the first half of the century, the novel in France was still dominated by the chivalric novels of the Middle Ages (in their prose versions) such as: Les Quatre Fils Aymon (or Renaud de MontaubanRenaud de Montauban
Renaud de Montauban, was a fictional hero who was introduced to literature in a 12th century Old French chanson de geste also known as Les Quatre Fils Aymon . His exploits form part of the Doon de Mayence cycle of chansons...
), Fierabras, Ogier le Danois
Ogier the Dane
Ogier the Dane is a legendary character who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence....
, Perceforest
Perceforest
The prose romance of Perceforest with lyrical interludes of poetry, in six books, appears to have been composed in French in the Low Countries between 1330 and 1344...
and Galien le Réthoré. From 1540 on however, the genre was dominated by foreign productions, most notably the Hispano-Portuguese multi-volume adventure novels Amadis de Gaule, Palmerin d'Olive, Primaléon de Grèce and others like them. The first of these, Amadis of Gaul — in its celebrated French translation/adaptation by Nicolas de Herberay des Essarts
Nicolas de Herberay des Essarts
Nicolas de Herberay des Essarts , French translator, was born in Picardy.He served in the artillery, and at the expressed desire of Francis I he translated intoFrench the first eight books of Amadis de Gaula...
— became the de facto code of conduct of the French court from Francis I through Henry IV and was emulated in jousts and in manners. Of similar tone and content (albeit in verse), the Italian epic poems Roland amoureux (Orlando Innamorato
Orlando Innamorato
Orlando Innamorato is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a romance concerning the heroic knight Orlando .-Composition and publication:...
) by Matteo Maria Boiardo
Matteo Maria Boiardo
Matteo Maria Boiardo was an Italian Renaissance poet.Boiardo was born at, or near, Scandiano ; the son of Giovanni di Feltrino and Lucia Strozzi, he was of noble lineage, ranking as Count of Scandiano, with seignorial power over Arceto, Casalgrande, Gesso, and Torricella...
and Roland furieux (Orlando furioso
Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
) by Ludovico Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso . The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions...
(and, at the end of the century, Tasso
Tasso
-People:*Torquato Tasso, the famous Italian 16th-century poet, author of Gerusalemme liberata**Tasso, Lament and Triumph, a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt based on the poet*Bernardo Tasso, his father, also a poet...
's Jerusalem Delivered
Jerusalem Delivered
Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Catholic knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem...
) were also enormous successes (French translations of these works were often in prose). Finally, the Italian Luigi Pulci
Luigi Pulci
Luigi Pulci was an Italian poet best known for his Morgante, an epic story of a giant who is converted to Christianity and follows the knight Orlando....
's Morgant le géant, a comic version of the chivalric novel, was an important model for Rabelais's giants.
The most notable French novels of the first half of the century are François Rabelais
François Rabelais
François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
’s masterpieces Pantagruel
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...
, Gargantua and their sequels. Rabelais’s works blend both humanism (Erasmus, Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
) and medieval farce (giants, heroic battles, scatological humor) in a manner that is grotesquely extravagant (the language and humor were often viewed as coarse by later centuries), but along with the buffoonery there is a keen satire of religious hypocrisy, political injustice and human doubt.
Alongside the chivalric, French literary tastes of the period were drawn to the amorous and pathetic, especially as depicted in the novels of Spaniards Diego de San Pedro
Diego de San Pedro
Diego de San Pedro was a Castilian writer about whom no one knows very much other than what he says in his works. Scholars also rely on what they infer from the context in which he wrote them and the many nobles to whom he has been linked....
and Juan de Flores, themselves inspired by Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
's Lady Fiammeta and its psychologically insightful portrayal of a woman spurned. This sentimental vein would find admirable expression in parts of Hélisenne de Crenne
Hélisenne de Crenne
Hélisenne de Crenne was the pseudonym of Marguerite Briet , a French novelist, epistolary writer and translator during the Renaissance.-Life:...
’s Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d’amours which blends sentimental and chivalric elements, humanist scholarship, orality and eloquence.
The foreign adventure novel would start to face competition from domestic French production in the second half of the century in the long works of authors Béroalde de Verville
Béroalde de Verville
François Béroalde de Verville was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was the son of Matthieu Brouard , called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre de l'Estoile and a Huguenot; his mother, Marie Bletz, was the niece of the humanist and Hebrew scholar...
and Nicolas de Montreux
Nicolas de Montreux
Nicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
. These authors (largely unread today) — like the authors of the later volumes of the Amadis cycle — abandoned many of the traditional chivalric modes, replacing them with techniques and incidents borrowed from two new sources of inspiration: the ancient Greek novel (Heliodorus
Heliodorus of Emesa
Heliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated to the third century AD who is known for the ancient Greek novel or romance called the Aethiopica or sometimes "Theagenes and Chariclea"....
, Longus
Longus
Longus, sometimes Longos , was the author of an ancient Greek novel or romance, Daphnis and Chloe. Very little is known of his life, and it is assumed that he lived on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD...
and Achilles Tatius
Achilles Tatius
Achilles Tatius of Alexandria was a Roman era Greek writer whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel or romance The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon.-Life and minor works:...
) and the mixed-form (prose and verse) pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
novel from Italy and Spain (Jacopo Sannazaro
Jacopo Sannazaro
Jacopo Sannazaro was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples.He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic Arcadia, a masterwork that illustrated the possibilities of poetical prose in Italian, and instituted the theme of...
and Jorge de Montemayor
Jorge de Montemayor
Jorge de Montemayor was a Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish.-Biography:He was born at Montemor-o-Velho , whence he derived his name, the Spanish form of which is Montemayor....
).
The novelty and inventiveness of the last years of the century are best seen in the anonymous La Mariane du Filomene (1596) which mixes the frame-tale, amorous sentiment, dreams, and pastoral elements to tell the story of a man wandering through the Parisian countryside trying to forget the woman who betrayed him.
Notable works of long prose fiction, including translations (preceded by an --) published in France in the sixteenth century:
- Jean Lemaire de BelgesJean Lemaire de BelgesJean Lemaire de Belges was a Walloon poet and historian who lived primarily in France.He was born in Hainaut , the godson and possibly a nephew of Jean Molinet, and spent some time with him at Valenciennes, where the elder writer held a kind of academy of poetry. Lemaire in his first poems calls...
Les Illustrations de Gaule (1510) - -- Diego de San PedroDiego de San PedroDiego de San Pedro was a Castilian writer about whom no one knows very much other than what he says in his works. Scholars also rely on what they infer from the context in which he wrote them and the many nobles to whom he has been linked....
La Prison d’Amour laquelle traite l’amour de Leriano et Laureole (13 editions between 1526–1604) - -- Juan de Flores Le Judgement d’Amour or Histoire d’Aurelio et d’Isabelle (1530)
- François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
PantagruelPantagruelPantagruel is an international Early Music ensemble specialising in semi-staged performances of Renaissance music. The group was formed in Essen, Germany at the end of 2002 by the English lutenist Mark Wheeler and the German born Dominik Schneider...
(1532) - -- BoccaccioGiovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
Complainte des tristes amours de Fiammette (1532) - François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
Gargantua (1534) - -- Juan de Flores La Déplourable fin de Flamète (translation by Maurice ScèveMaurice ScèveMaurice Scève , French poet, was born at Lyon, where his father practised law.He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch...
, 1535) - -- Baldassare CastiglioneBaldassare CastiglioneBaldassare Castiglione, count of was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:Castiglione was born into an illustrious Lombard family at Casatico, near Mantua, where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo...
Le Courtesan (1535) - Hélisenne de CrenneHélisenne de CrenneHélisenne de Crenne was the pseudonym of Marguerite Briet , a French novelist, epistolary writer and translator during the Renaissance.-Life:...
(Marguerite Briet) Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d’amours (1538) - -- Diego de San PedroDiego de San PedroDiego de San Pedro was a Castilian writer about whom no one knows very much other than what he says in his works. Scholars also rely on what they infer from the context in which he wrote them and the many nobles to whom he has been linked....
Les Amours d’Arnalte et de Lucenda or L’amant mal traicté de s’amye (14 editions from 1539–1582) - -- Garci Rodríguez de MontalvoGarci Rodríguez de MontalvoGarci Rodríguez de Montalvo was a Spanish author who arranged the modern version of the chivalric romance Amadis of Gaul, written in three books in the 14th century by an unknown author...
Amadis de Gaule (first books translated by Nicolas de Herberay des EssartsNicolas de Herberay des EssartsNicolas de Herberay des Essarts , French translator, was born in Picardy.He served in the artillery, and at the expressed desire of Francis I he translated intoFrench the first eight books of Amadis de Gaula...
, starting from 1540; for more on its sequels and translations, see the article on "Amadis of Gaul") - -- Jacopo SannazaroJacopo SannazaroJacopo Sannazaro was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples.He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic Arcadia, a masterwork that illustrated the possibilities of poetical prose in Italian, and instituted the theme of...
Arcadia (1544) - -- Ariosto Roland furieuxOrlando FuriosoOrlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
(prose translation, 1544) - François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
Le tiers livre (1546) - -- Francesco ColonnaFrancesco ColonnaFrancesco Colonna was an Italian Dominican priest and monk who was credited with the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by an acrostic in the text.He lived in Venice, and preached at St. Mark's Cathedral...
Songe de Poliphile (with engravings attributed to Jean GoujonJean GoujonJean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.-Biography:His early life is little known; he was likely born in Normandy and may have traveled in Italy...
, 1546) - -- L’histoire de Palmerin d’Olive (translated by Jean Maugin, 1546)
- -- Heliodorus of EmesaHeliodorus of EmesaHeliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated to the third century AD who is known for the ancient Greek novel or romance called the Aethiopica or sometimes "Theagenes and Chariclea"....
L’histoire aethiopique (translated by Jacques AmyotJacques AmyotJacques Amyot , French Renaissance writer and translator, was born of poor parents, at Melun.He found his way to the University of Paris, where he supported himself by serving some of the richer students. He was nineteen when he became M.A. at Paris, and later he graduated doctor of civil law at...
, 1547) - François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
Le quart livre (1552) - “Théodose Valentinian” L’Histoire de l’amant resuscité par la mort d’amour (partly inspired by Diego de San Pedro, 1555)
- -- LongusLongusLongus, sometimes Longos , was the author of an ancient Greek novel or romance, Daphnis and Chloe. Very little is known of his life, and it is assumed that he lived on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD...
Les Amours pastorales de Daphnis et de Chloé (translated by Jacques AmyotJacques AmyotJacques Amyot , French Renaissance writer and translator, was born of poor parents, at Melun.He found his way to the University of Paris, where he supported himself by serving some of the richer students. He was nineteen when he became M.A. at Paris, and later he graduated doctor of civil law at...
, 1559) - François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
(attributed) Le cinquième livre (1564) - -- Achilles TatiusAchilles TatiusAchilles Tatius of Alexandria was a Roman era Greek writer whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel or romance The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon.-Life and minor works:...
Les Amours de Clitophon et de Leucippe (translated by François de BelleforestFrançois de BelleforestFrançois de Belleforest was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven...
, 1568) - François de BelleforestFrançois de BelleforestFrançois de Belleforest was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven...
La Pyrénée (or La Pastorale amoureuse) (1571) - -- Jorge de MontemayorJorge de MontemayorJorge de Montemayor was a Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish.-Biography:He was born at Montemor-o-Velho , whence he derived his name, the Spanish form of which is Montemayor....
La Diane (1578) - Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
Les Bergeries de Juliette (1585–98) - -- TassoTasso-People:*Torquato Tasso, the famous Italian 16th-century poet, author of Gerusalemme liberata**Tasso, Lament and Triumph, a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt based on the poet*Bernardo Tasso, his father, also a poet...
Jérusalem délivréeJerusalem DeliveredJerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Catholic knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem...
(prose translation, 1587) - Béroalde de VervilleBéroalde de VervilleFrançois Béroalde de Verville was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was the son of Matthieu Brouard , called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre de l'Estoile and a Huguenot; his mother, Marie Bletz, was the niece of the humanist and Hebrew scholar...
Les Avantures de Floride (1593–1596) - Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
Les chastes et delectables Jardins d’Amour (1594) - Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
L’Œuvre de la Chasteté (1595-9) - (Anon) La Mariane du Filomene (1596)
- (Anon) Les chastes amours d’Helene de Marthe(1597)
- Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
Les Amours de Cleandre et Domiphille (1597) - Béroalde de VervilleBéroalde de VervilleFrançois Béroalde de Verville was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was the son of Matthieu Brouard , called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre de l'Estoile and a Huguenot; his mother, Marie Bletz, was the niece of the humanist and Hebrew scholar...
Le Restablissement de Troye (1597)
The Short Story
The French Renaissance is dominated by the short storyShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
(under various names: "conte", a tale; "nouvelle", a short story like the Italian novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
; "devis" and "propos", a spoken discussion; "histoire", a story). For the period, part of the attraction of the dialogued short story and the frame tale (with its fictional speakers discussing each other's stories) lies in their "performability" by someone reading out loud to a non-literate public and in their grab-bag and (frequently) digressive structure: these tales are capable of taking on all kinds of material, both sophisticated and vulgar.
The Decameron, the short story collection by the Italian author Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
— with its frame tale of nobles fleeing the plague and telling each other stories — had an enormous impact on French writers. The sister of Francis I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
, Marguerite of Navarre
Marguerite de Navarre
Marguerite de Navarre , also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of Henry II of Navarre...
— who was the center of a progressive literary circle — undertook her own version ("the Heptameron
Heptameron
The Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre, published in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio...
") which — although incomplete — is one of the masterpieces of the century. Other important writers of short stories include Noël du Fail
Noël du Fail
Noël du Fail, seigneur de La Hérissaye , was a French jurist and writer of the Renaissance...
and Bonaventure des Périers
Bonaventure des Périers
Bonaventure des Périers was a French author.He was born of a noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the fifteenth century....
. As the century progressed, the use of oral discourse, multiple voices and table talk led to a dialogued form which often seems revolutionary and chaotic to modern ears.
The French reading public was also fascinated by the dark tragic novellas (“les histories tragiques”) of Bandello which were avidly adapted and emulated into the beginning of the seventeenth century (Jacques Yver, Vérité Habanc, Bénigne Poissenot, François de Rosset, Jean-Pierre Camus
Jean-Pierre Camus
Jean-Pierre Camus de Pontcarré was a French bishop, preacher, and author of works of fiction and spirituality.-Biography:...
).
Short story collections in France in the Renaissance:
- Anon. Cent nouvelles nouvellesCent Nouvelles nouvellesThe Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles is a collection of stories supposed to be narrated by various persons at the court of Philippe le Bon, and collected together by Antoine de la Sale in the mid-15th century....
(1462) - Philippe de Vigneulles Nouvelles (c.1515) - most are lost
- Anon. Le Paragon des nouvelles honnestes et délectables (1531)
- Nicolas de Troyes Le grand paragon des nouvelles nouvelles (c1533-37)
- Bonaventure des PériersBonaventure des PériersBonaventure des Périers was a French author.He was born of a noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the fifteenth century....
Cymbalum mundi (1537) - Giovanni BoccaccioGiovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
Le Décaméron - Antoine Le Maçon, translator (1545) - Noël du FailNoël du FailNoël du Fail, seigneur de La Hérissaye , was a French jurist and writer of the Renaissance...
Propos rustiques de maistre Léon Ladulfi (1547) - Noël du FailNoël du FailNoël du Fail, seigneur de La Hérissaye , was a French jurist and writer of the Renaissance...
Les Baliverneries ou contes nouveaux d’Eutrapel (1548) - La Motte-Roullant Les fascetieux devitz des cent nouvelles nouvelles, tres recreatives et fort exemplaires... (1549) - (109 tales, mostly versions of Cent nouvelles nouvelles)
- Bonaventure des PériersBonaventure des PériersBonaventure des Périers was a French author.He was born of a noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the fifteenth century....
Les Nouvelles récréations et Joyeux devis (90 tales) (1558) - Pierre BoaistuauPierre BoaistuauPierre Boaistuau, also known as Pierre Launay or Sieur de Launay was a French humanist. 'Boaistuau' is the manner of spelling followed by the majority of secondary works in which he has been mentioned...
, ed. Histoires des Amans fortunez (1558) - truncated version of l’HeptaméronHeptameronThe Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre, published in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio...
(67 tales) without dialogues between the stories - Marguerite de NavarreMarguerite de NavarreMarguerite de Navarre , also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of Henry II of Navarre...
L’HeptaméronHeptameronThe Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre, published in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio...
Claude Gruget, ed. (1559) - Pierre BoaistuauPierre BoaistuauPierre Boaistuau, also known as Pierre Launay or Sieur de Launay was a French humanist. 'Boaistuau' is the manner of spelling followed by the majority of secondary works in which he has been mentioned...
Histoires tragiques extraictes des oeuvres italiennes de Bandel.... (1559) - translation of Bandello. - François de BelleforestFrançois de BelleforestFrançois de Belleforest was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven...
Continuation des histoires tragiques, contenant douze histoires tirées de Bandel.... (1559) - translation of Bandello. - Pierre ViretPierre ViretPierre Viret was a Swiss Reformed theologian.- Early life :Pierre Viret was born to a devout middle class Roman Catholic family in Orbe, a small town now in Switzerland. He was a close friend of John Calvin....
Le Monde à l'empire (date?) satirical pamphlet - Pierre ViretPierre ViretPierre Viret was a Swiss Reformed theologian.- Early life :Pierre Viret was born to a devout middle class Roman Catholic family in Orbe, a small town now in Switzerland. He was a close friend of John Calvin....
Le Monde démoniacle (1561) satirical pamphlet - François de BelleforestFrançois de BelleforestFrançois de Belleforest was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven...
and Pierre BoaistuauPierre BoaistuauPierre Boaistuau, also known as Pierre Launay or Sieur de Launay was a French humanist. 'Boaistuau' is the manner of spelling followed by the majority of secondary works in which he has been mentioned...
Histoires tragiques - 7 vols. Belleforest’s continuation of the translation of Bandello, published with Boaistuau’s (1566–1583) - Jacques Tahureau Les dialogues, Non moins profitables que facetieux (1565)
- Henri Estienne Apologie pour Hérodote (1566) (includes 180 tales)
- Estienne Tabourot des Accords Les Bigarrures (1572)
- Jean Bergier Discours modernes et facecieux (1572) - (13 tales)
- Jacques Yver Le Printemps d’Yver, contenant plusieurs histories discourues en cinq journées (1572)
- Duroc Sort-Manne (pseudo. for Romannet Du Cros) Nouveaux recits ou comptes moralisez (1573)
- Jeanne Flore Comptes amoureux (1574) (7 tales)
- Antoine Tyron Recueil de plusieurs plaisantes nouvelles, apaphthegmes et recreations diverses (1578)
- Bénigne Poissenot L’été (1583)
- Gabrielle Chappuys Cent excellentes nouvelles (1583) - translation of the Hecatommithi by Italian Giovanni Battista GiraldiGiovanni Battista GiraldiGiovanni Battista Giraldi was an Italian novelist and poet. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name .Born at Ferrara, he was educated at the university there, and in 1525 became its professor of natural philosophy...
(also known as Cintio) - Gabrielle Chappuys Les facétieuses journées (1584) - translation of Italian tales
- Antoine du VerdierAntoine du VerdierAntoine du Verdier , lord of Vauprivast, was a French politician and writer. He was conseiller du roi and controller-general in Lyon, but is best known for his work as a bibliographer alongside his friend and contemporary François Grudé.-Publications:* Prosopographie, description des...
Le compseutique ou Traits facétieux (1584) - mostly lost - Guillaume Bouchet Les sérées (1584, 97, 98)
- Estienne Tabourot des Accords Apophtegmes du Sieur Gaulard (1585)
- Noël Du FailNoël du FailNoël du Fail, seigneur de La Hérissaye , was a French jurist and writer of the Renaissance...
Les contes et discours d'Eutrapel (1585) - De Cholières Les matinées (1585)
- Vérité Habanc Nouvelles histoires tant tragiques que comiques (1585).
- Bénigne Poissenot Nouvelles histoires tragiques (1586).
- De Cholières Les après-dînées (1587)
- Estienne Tabourot des Accords Les Escraignes dijonnaises (1588)
Theatre
Sixteenth century French theater followed the same patterns of evolution as the other literary genres of the period.For the first decades of the century, public theater remained largely tied to its long medieval heritage of mystery play
Mystery play
Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
s, morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
s, farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
s, and sotie
Sotie
A sotie is a short satirical play common in 15th- and 16th-century France. The word comes from the sots, "fools", who appeared as characters in the play. In the plays, these fools would make observations and exchange thoughts on contemporary events and individuals...
s, although the miracle play was no longer in vogue. Public performances were tightly controlled by a guild system. The guild “les Confrères de la Passion” had exclusive rights to theatrical productions of mystery plays in Paris; in 1548, fear of violence or blasphemy resulting from the growing religious rift in France forced the Paris Parliament to prohibit performances of the mysteries in the capital, although they continued to be performed in other places. Another guild, the “Enfants Sans-Souci” were in charge of farces and soties, as too the “Clercs de la Basoche” who also performed morality plays. Like the "Confrères de la Passion", "la Basoche
Basoche
The Basoche was the guild of legal clerks of the Paris court system under the pre-revolutionary French monarchy. It was an ancient institution whose roots are unclear. The word itself derives from the Latin basilica, the kind of building in which the legal trade was practiced in the Middle Ages...
" came under political scrutiny (plays had to be authorized by a review board; masks or characters depicting living persons were not permitted), and they were finally suppressed in 1582. By the end of the century, only the "Confrères de la Passion" remained with exclusive control over public theatrical productions in Paris, and they rented out their theater at the Hôtel de Bourgogne to theatrical troupes for a high price. In 1599, they abandoned this privilege.
It is of note that, alongside the numerous writers of these traditional works (such as the farce writers Pierre Gringore
Pierre Gringore
Pierre Gringoire was a popular French poet and playwright. He was born in Normandy, at Thury-Harcourt, but the exact date and place of his death are unknown. His first work was Le Chasteau de Labour , an allegorical poem....
, Nicolas de La Chesnaye and André de la Vigne), Marguerite of Navarre
Marguerite de Navarre
Marguerite de Navarre , also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of Henry II of Navarre...
also wrote a number of plays close to the traditional mystery and morality play.
As early as 1503 however, original language versions of Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Seneca
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
, Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
, Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, Terence
Terence
Publius Terentius Afer , better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on,...
and Plautus
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
were all available in Europe and the next forty years would see humanists and poets both translating these classics and adapting them. In the 1540s, the French university setting (and especially — from 1553 on — the Jesuit colleges) became host to a Neo-Latin theater (in Latin) written by professors such as George Buchanan
George Buchanan (humanist)
George Buchanan was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. He was part of the Monarchomach movement.-Early life:...
and Marc Antoine Muret which would leave a profound mark on the members of La Pléiade
La Pléiade
The Pléiade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleiad of seven Alexandrian poets and...
. From 1550 on, one finds humanist theater written in French.
The influence of Seneca
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
was particularly strong in humanist tragedy. His plays — which were essentially chamber plays meant to be read for their lyrical passages and rhetorical oratory — brought to many humanist tragedies a concentration on rhetoric and language over dramatic action.
Humanist tragedy took two distinct directions:
- Biblical tragedy : plots taken from the bible — although close in inspiration to the medieval mystery plays, the humanist biblical tragedy reconceived the biblical characters along classical lines, suppressing both comic elements and the presence of God on the stage. The plots often had clear parallels to contemporary political and religious matters and one finds both Protestant and Catholic playwrights.
- Ancient tragedy : plots taken from mythology or history — they often had clear parallels to contemporary political and religious matters
During the height of the civil wars (1570–1580), a third category of militant theater appeared:
- Contemporary tragedy : plots taken from recent events
Along with their work as translators and adaptors of plays, the humanists also investigated classical theories of dramatic structure, plot, and characterization. Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
was translated in the 1540s, but had been available throughout the Middle Ages. A complete version of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's Poetics appeared later (first in 1570 in an Italian version), but his ideas had circulated (in an extremely truncated form) as early as the 13th century in Hermann the German's Latin translation of Averroes
Averroes
' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
' Arabic gloss, and other translations of the Poetics had appeared in the first half of the 16th century; also of importance were the commentaries on Aristotle's poetics by Julius Caesar Scaliger
Julius Caesar Scaliger
Julius Caesar Scaliger was an Italian scholar and physician who spent a major part of his career in France. He employed the techniques and discoveries of Renaissance humanism to defend Aristotelianism against the new learning...
which appeared in the 1560s. The fourth century grammarians Diomedes and Aelius Donatus
Aelius Donatus
Aelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. The only fact known regarding his life is that he was the tutor of St...
were also a source of classical theory. The sixteenth century Italians played a central role in the publishing and interpretation of classical dramatic theory, and their works had a major effect on French theater. Lodovico Castelvetro
Lodovico Castelvetro
Lodovico Castelvetro was an important figure in the development of neo-classicism, especially in drama. It was his reading of Aristotle that led to a widespread adoption of a tight version of the Three Unities, as a dramatic standard....
's Aristote-based Art of Poetry(1570) was one of the first enunciations of the three unities; this work would inform Jean de la Taille
Jean de La Taille
Jean de La Taille was a French poet and dramatist born in Bondaroy.He studied the humanities in Paris under Muretus, and law at Orléans under Anne de Bourg. He began his career as a Huguenot, but afterwards adopted a mild Catholicism...
's Art de la tragedie (1572). Italian theater (like the tragedy of Gian Giorgio Trissino
Gian Giorgio Trissino
Gian Giorgio Trissino was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet, dramatist, diplomat, and grammarian.-Biography:...
) and debates on decorum (like those provoked by Sperone Speroni
Sperone Speroni
Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy Accademia degli Infiammati and wrote on both moral and literary matters.-Biography:...
's play Canace and Giovanni Battista Giraldi
Giovanni Battista Giraldi
Giovanni Battista Giraldi was an Italian novelist and poet. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name .Born at Ferrara, he was educated at the university there, and in 1525 became its professor of natural philosophy...
's play Orbecche) would also influence the French tradition.
In the same spirit of imitation — and adaptation — of classical sources that had informed the poetic compositions of La Pléiade, French humanist writers recommended that tragedy should be in five acts and have three main characters of noble rank; the play should begin in the middle of the action (in medias res
In medias res
In medias res or medias in res is a Latin phrase denoting the literary and artistic narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) is a Latin phrase...
), use noble language and not show scenes of horror on the stage. Some writers (like Lazare de Baïf
Lazare de Baïf
Lazare de Baïf was a French diplomat and humanist. His natural son, Jean-Antoine de Baïf, was born in Venice, while Lazare was French ambassador there....
and Thomas Sébillet
Thomas Sébillet
Thomas Sébillet was a French jurist and grammarian. He is now remembered for his Art Poétique from 1548, on French verse. He was strongly contradicted later by Joachim du Bellay, whose art poétique became normative. This "decapitation of richesse" lead to a centralisation of language, too...
) attempted to link the medieval tradition of morality plays and farces to classical theater, but Joachim du Bellay
Joachim du Bellay
Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
rejected this claim and elevated classical tragedy and comedy to a higher dignity. Of greater difficulty for the theorists was the incorporation of Aristotle's notion of "catharsis
Catharsis
Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". It is derived from the verb καθαίρειν, kathairein, "to purify, purge," and it is related to the adjective καθαρός, katharos, "pure or clean."-Dramatic uses:...
" or the purgation of emotions with Renaissance theater, which remained profoundly attached to both pleasing the audience and to the rhetorical aim of showing moral examples (exemplum
Exemplum
An exemplum is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point.-Exemplary literature:...
).
Étienne Jodelle
Étienne Jodelle
Étienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin , French dramatist and poet, was born in Paris of a noble family.He attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic composition...
's Cléopâtre captive (1553) — which tells the impassioned fears and doubts of Cleopatra contemplating suicide — has the distinction of being the first original French play to follow Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
's classical precepts on structure (the play is in five acts and respects more or less the unities of time, place and action) and is extremely close to the ancient model: the prologue is introduced by a shade, there is a classical chorus which comments on the action and talks directly to the characters, and the tragic ending is described by a messenger.
Mellin de Saint-Gelais
Mellin de Saint-Gelais
Mellin de Saint-Gelais was a French poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I of France.- Life :...
's translation of Gian Giorgio Trissino
Gian Giorgio Trissino
Gian Giorgio Trissino was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet, dramatist, diplomat, and grammarian.-Biography:...
's La Sophonisbe — the first modern regular tragedy based on ancient models which tells the story of the noble Sophonisba
Sophonisba
Sophonisba was a Carthaginian noblewoman who lived during the Second Punic War, and the daughter of Hasdrubal Gisco Gisgonis...
's suicide (rather than be taken as captive by Rome) — was an enormous success at the court when performed in 1556.
Select list of authors and works of humanist tragedy:
- Théodore de Bèze
- Abraham sacrifiant (1550)
- Étienne JodelleÉtienne JodelleÉtienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin , French dramatist and poet, was born in Paris of a noble family.He attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic composition...
- Cléopâtre captive (1553)
- Didon se sacrifiant (date unknown)
- Mellin de Saint-GelaisMellin de Saint-GelaisMellin de Saint-Gelais was a French poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I of France.- Life :...
- La Sophonisbe (performed 1556) - translation of the Italian play (1524) by Gian Giorgio TrissinoGian Giorgio TrissinoGian Giorgio Trissino was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet, dramatist, diplomat, and grammarian.-Biography:...
- La Sophonisbe (performed 1556) - translation of the Italian play (1524) by Gian Giorgio Trissino
- Jacques GrévinJacques GrévinJacques Grévin was a French dramatist.Grévin was born at Clermont, Oise in about 1539, and he studied medicine at the University of Paris. He became a disciple of Ronsard, and was one of the band of dramatists who sought to introduce the classical drama in France...
- Jules César (1560) - imitated from the LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
of Marc Antoine Muret
- Jules César (1560) - imitated from the Latin
- Jean de la TailleJean de La TailleJean de La Taille was a French poet and dramatist born in Bondaroy.He studied the humanities in Paris under Muretus, and law at Orléans under Anne de Bourg. He began his career as a Huguenot, but afterwards adopted a mild Catholicism...
- Saül, le furieux (1563–1572)
- Guillaume Le BretonGuillaume Le BretonGuillaume Le Breton was a French dramatist of the sixteenth century. Little is known of his life, although the title of his play Adonis mentions he was from the Nièvre region...
- Adonis (1569)
- Robert GarnierRobert GarnierRobert Garnier was a French tragic poet. He published his first work while still a law-student at Toulouse, where he won a prize in the Académie des Jeux Floraux. It was a collection of lyrical pieces, now lost, entitled Plaintes amoureuses de Robert Garnier...
- Porcie (published 1568, acted in 1573),
- Cornélie (acted in 1573 and published in 1574)
- Hippolyte (acted in 1573 and published in 1574)
- Marc-Antoine (1578)
- La Troade (1579)
- Antigone (1580)
- Les Juives (1583)
- Pierre MatthieuPierre MatthieuPierre Matthieu was a French writer, poet, historian and dramatist.-Biography:Pierre Matthieu studied under the Jesuits and mastered Latin, Ancient Greek and Hebrew...
(1563–1621)- Clytemnestre (1578)
- Esther (1581)
- Vashti (1589)
- Aman, de la perfidie (1589)
- La Guisiade (1589)
- Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
- Tragédie du jeune Cyrus (1581)
- Isabelle (1594)
- Cléopâtre (1594)
- Sophonisbe (1601)
(See the playwrights Antoine de Montchrestien
Antoine de Montchrestien
Antoine de Montchrestien was a French soldier, dramatist, adventurer and economist.Montchrestien was born in Falaise, Normandy...
, Alexandre Hardy
Alexandre Hardy
Alexandre Hardy was a French dramatist, one of the most prolific of all time. He claimed to have written some six hundred plays, but only thirty-four are extant....
and Jean de Schelandre
Jean de Schelandre
Jean de Schelandre , Seigneur de Saumazènes, was a French poet.-Biography:He was born about 1585 near Verdun of a Calvinist family, and studied at the university of Paris...
for tragedy around 1600-1610.)
Alongside tragedy, European humanists also adapted the ancient comedic tradition and as early as the 15th century, Renaissance Italy had developed a form of humanist Latin comedy. Although the ancients had been less theoretical about the comedic form, the humanists used the precepts of Aelius Donatus
Aelius Donatus
Aelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. The only fact known regarding his life is that he was the tutor of St...
(4th century A.D.), Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
, Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and the works of Terence
Terence
Publius Terentius Afer , better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on,...
to elaborate a set of rules: comedy should seek to correct vice by showing the truth; there should be a happy ending; comedy uses a lower style of language than tragedy; comedy does not paint the great events of states and leaders, but the private lives of people, and its principal subject is love.
Although some French authors kept close to the ancient models (Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
translated a part of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
's "Plutus" at college), on the whole the French comedic tradition shows a great deal of borrowing from all sources: medieval farce (which continued to be immensely popular throughout the century), the short story, Italian humanist comedies and "La Celestina" (by Fernando de Rojas
Fernando de Rojas
Fernando de Rojas was a Spanish author about whom little information is known. He possibly attended the University of Salamanca. Although his family was of Jewish ancestry, they were conversos, or Jews who had converted to Christianity under pressure from the Spanish crown...
). The most prolific of the French Renaissance comedic authors, Pierre de Larivey
Pierre de Larivey
Pierre de Larivey was a French dramatist of Italian origin. He is credited with introducing the Italian "comedy of intrigue" into France.-Life:Little is known of Larivey's biography...
, adapted Italian comedies of intrigue by the authors Ludovico Dolce, Niccolò Buonaparte, Lorenzino de' Medici
Lorenzino de' Medici
Lorenzino de' Medici , sometimes called Lorenzaccio de' Medici, was an Italian writer remembered primarily as the assassin of Alessandro de' Medici, duke and ruler of Florence.-Biography:...
, Antonio Francesco Grazzini
Antonio Francesco Grazzini
Antonio Francesco Grazzini was an Italian author.-Biography:He was born at Florence of a good family, but there is no record of his upbringing and education. He probably began to practise as an apothecary as a youth...
, Vincenzo Gabbiani, Girolano Razzi, Luigi Pasqualigo, and Nicolὸ Secchi.
Select list of authors and works of Renaissance comedy:
- Étienne JodelleÉtienne JodelleÉtienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin , French dramatist and poet, was born in Paris of a noble family.He attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic composition...
- L'Eugène (1552) – a comedy in five acts
- Jacques GrévinJacques GrévinJacques Grévin was a French dramatist.Grévin was born at Clermont, Oise in about 1539, and he studied medicine at the University of Paris. He became a disciple of Ronsard, and was one of the band of dramatists who sought to introduce the classical drama in France...
- Les Ébahis (1560)
- Jean Antoine de Baïf
- L'Eunuque (1565), a version of TerenceTerencePublius Terentius Afer , better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on,...
's Eunuchus - Le Brave (1567) – a version of PlautusPlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
's Miles gloriosusMiles GloriosusMiles Gloriosus is a stock character of a boastful soldier from the comic theatre of ancient Rome, and variations on this character have appeared in drama and fiction ever since. The character derives from the alazôn or "braggart" of the Greek Old Comedy...
- L'Eunuque (1565), a version of Terence
- Jean de la TailleJean de La TailleJean de La Taille was a French poet and dramatist born in Bondaroy.He studied the humanities in Paris under Muretus, and law at Orléans under Anne de Bourg. He began his career as a Huguenot, but afterwards adopted a mild Catholicism...
- Les Corrivaus (published in 1573) – an imitation of BoccaccioGiovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
and other Italians
- Les Corrivaus (published in 1573) – an imitation of Boccaccio
- Pierre de LariveyPierre de LariveyPierre de Larivey was a French dramatist of Italian origin. He is credited with introducing the Italian "comedy of intrigue" into France.-Life:Little is known of Larivey's biography...
– Larivey was an important adapter of the Italian comedy- Le Laquais (1579)
- La Vefve (1579)
- Les Esprits (1579)
- Le Morfondu (1579)
- Les Jaloux (1579)
- Les Escolliers (1579)
- Odet de TurnèbeOdet de TurnèbeOdet de Turnèbe was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the Greek scholar Adrien Turnèbe, Odet de Turnèbe received a solid education and was known, from an early age, for his intelligence and wit...
- Les Contents (1581)
- Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
- La Joyeuse (1581)
- Joseph le Chaste (?)
- François d'AmboiseFrançois d'AmboiseFrançois d'Amboise was a French jurist and writer. He was counseller to the Parlement of Brittany and advocate general to the Grand Conseil.- Biography :...
(1550–1619)- Les Néapolitaines (1584)
In the last decades of the century, four other theatrical modes from Italy — which did not follow the rigid rules of classical theater – flooded the French stage:
- the Commedia dell'arteCommedia dell'arteCommedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
— an improvisational theater of fixed types (Harlequin, Colombo) created in PaduaPaduaPadua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
in 1545; Italian troupes were invited in France from 1576 on. - the TragicomedyTragicomedyTragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
— a theatrical version of the adventurous novel, with lovers, knights, disguises and magic. The most famous of these is Robert GarnierRobert GarnierRobert Garnier was a French tragic poet. He published his first work while still a law-student at Toulouse, where he won a prize in the Académie des Jeux Floraux. It was a collection of lyrical pieces, now lost, entitled Plaintes amoureuses de Robert Garnier...
's Bradamante (1580), adapted from Ariosto's Orlando furiosoOrlando FuriosoOrlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
. - the PastoralPastoralThe adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
— modeled on Giambattista Guarini's "Pastor fido" ("Faithful Shepard"), TassoTasso-People:*Torquato Tasso, the famous Italian 16th-century poet, author of Gerusalemme liberata**Tasso, Lament and Triumph, a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt based on the poet*Bernardo Tasso, his father, also a poet...
's "Aminta" and Antonio Ongaro "Alceo" (themselves inspired by Jacopo SannazaroJacopo SannazaroJacopo Sannazaro was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples.He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic Arcadia, a masterwork that illustrated the possibilities of poetical prose in Italian, and instituted the theme of...
and Jorge de MontemayorJorge de MontemayorJorge de Montemayor was a Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish.-Biography:He was born at Montemor-o-Velho , whence he derived his name, the Spanish form of which is Montemayor....
). The first French pastorals were short plays performed before a tragedy, but were eventually expanded into five acts. Nicolas de MontreuxNicolas de MontreuxNicolas de Montreux was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.Born in province of Maine, he was the son of a maître des requêtes and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the Duke of Mercœur and participated in the civil wars on the...
wrote three pastorals: Athlette (1585), Diane (1592) Arimène ou le berger désespéré (1597). - the Ballets de courBallets de courBallets de cour is the name given to ballets performed in the 16th and 17th centuries at court. Jean-Baptiste Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and was instrumental to the development of the form...
— an allegorical and fantastic mixture of dance and theater. The most famous of these is the "Ballet comique de la reine" (1581).
By the end of the century, the most influential French playwright — by the range of his styles and by his mastery of the new forms — would be Robert Garnier
Robert Garnier
Robert Garnier was a French tragic poet. He published his first work while still a law-student at Toulouse, where he won a prize in the Académie des Jeux Floraux. It was a collection of lyrical pieces, now lost, entitled Plaintes amoureuses de Robert Garnier...
.
All of these eclectic traditions would continue to evolve in the "baroque" theater of the early 17th century, before French "classicism" would finally impose itself.
Other literary forms
The French Renaissance was rich in a whole body of moral, literary, philological and philosophical writing. Michel de MontaigneMichel de Montaigne
Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne , February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592, was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and is popularly thought of as the father of Modern Skepticism...
was the first essayist of modern times (The Essays
Essays (Montaigne)
Essays is the title given to a collection of 107 essays written by Michel de Montaigne that was first published in 1580. Montaigne essentially invented the literary form of essay, a short subjective treatment of a given topic, of which the book contains a large number...
) and a remarkable writer on the human condition. Étienne Pasquier
Étienne Pasquier
Étienne Pasquier , French lawyer and man of letters, was born at Paris, on 7 June 1529 by his own account, according to others a year earlier. He was called to the Paris bar in 1549....
's Recherches de la France was another monumental compendium of historical, political and cultural observations.
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme was a French historian, soldier and biographer.-Life:Brantôme was born in Périgord, Aquitaine, the third son of the baron de Bourdeille...
wrote biographical sketches of the men and women of the court.
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty; he was also an influential writer on demonology....
wrote a number of important works on political science.
Henri Estienne and his son Robert Estienne
Robert Estienne
Robert I Estienne , known as Robertus Stephanus in Latin and also referred to as Robert Stephens by 18th and 19th-century English writers, was a 16th century printer and classical scholar in Paris...
were among the most important printers in France in the 16th century, and Robert Estienne's edition of the Bible was the first to use chapter and verse divisions.
The Catholic/Huguenot and civil/political conflicts of the last half of the century—the French Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
-- generated a great deal of political, religious and satirical writing, including the Monarchomachs
Monarchomachs
The Monarchomachs were originally French Huguenot theorists who opposed absolute monarchy at the end of the 16th century, known in particular for having theoretically justified tyrannicide...
' libels
Libel (poetry)
Libel is a verse genre primarily of the Renaissance, descended from the tradition of invective in classical Greek and Roman poetry. Libel is usually expressly political, and balder and coarser than satire...
.
The Satire Ménippée
Satire Ménippée
The Satire Ménippée or La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne was a political and satirical work in prose and verse which criticized the excesses of the Catholic League and Spanish pretensions during the Wars of Religion in France and defended the idea of an independent but...
(1593/1594) written by Nicolas Rapin
Nicolas Rapin
Nicolas Rapin was a French Renaissance magistrate, royal officer, translator, poet and satirist, known for being one of the authors of the Satire Ménippée and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the Holy League during the Wars of Religion.- Life :Born at Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée into a family...
, Jean Passerat
Jean Passerat
Jean Passerat , French political satirist and poet, was born at Troyes, on 18 October 1534. He studied at the University of Paris, and is said to have had some curious adventures at one time working in a mine...
and Florent Chrestien
Florent Chrestien
Florent Chrestien was a French satirist and Latin poet.Chrestien was the son of Guillaume Chrestien, an eminent French physician and writer on physiology, was born at Orléans. A pupil of Henri Estienne, the Hellenist, at an early age he was appointed tutor to Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV,...
, and edited/revised by Pierre Pithou
Pierre Pithou
Pierre Pithou was a French lawyer and scholar. He is also known as Petrus Pithoeus.He was born at Troyes. From childhood he loved literature, and his father Pierre encouraged this interest. Young Pithou was called to the Paris bar in 1560...
was a political and satirical work in prose and verse which criticized the excesses of the Catholic League
Catholic League (French)
The Catholic League of France, sometimes referred to by contemporary Roman Catholics as the Holy League, a major player in the French Wars of Religion, was formed by Duke Henry of Guise in 1576...
during the Wars of Religion.