Guillaume Alexis (precise birth and death dates unknown) was a French Benedictine monk and poet of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, nicknamed the "Good Monk". His abbey was that at Lire ( La Vieille-Lyre), in the

diocese of Évreux In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

, He became prior of Bussy, in

Perche Perche () (French: ''le Perche'') is a former province of France, known historically for its forests and, for the past two centuries, for the Percheron draft horse breed. Until the French Revolution, Perche was bounded by four ancient territorie ...

. In 1486 he went on a pilgrimage to JerusalemCitations et commentaires du poème de Claude-Pierre Goujet
/ref> and died there, a victim of Ottoman persecution.

Works

Guillaume Alexis was a poet of a very live style, who literary critics rank with the successors of François Villon: *''Le Passe-temps de tout homme et de toute femme avec l'A, B, С des doubles'' (Paris, Antoine Vérard), in verse, Latin translation of a text attributed to pope Innocent III, describing the history of man's life from birth to death. *''Le Grant Blason des faulces amours'', (of which an edition dating to 1529 published in Lyon at the house of Claude Nourry). This poem, 126 stanzas in twelve verses, is a dialogue between a gentleman and a monk (supposed to be the author), the former defending love, the latter opposing it. The monk's arguments mainly consist of attacking women, in the tradition of the misogynist works denounced by

Christine de Pizan Christine de Pizan or Pisan (), born Cristina da Pizzano (September 1364 – c. 1430), was an Italian poet and court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French dukes. Christine de Pizan served as a court writer in medieval France ...

in the introduction to '' The Book of the City of Ladies''. His arguments are so convincing that the gentleman ends up agreeing with the monk. The work was popular enough to be cited in another famous misogynist work of the time, '' Les Quinze Joies de mariage'' and to incite another author to edit a ''Contre blason'', where the same arguments are this time defended by two women, a woman of the court and a nun. The latter has the last word. *''Le Dialogue du Crucifix et du Pèlerin'', according to the title written during a 1486 pilgrimage to Jerusalem and printed in Paris. *''Le Loyer des folles amours, et le Triomphe des Muses contre l'amour'', following the "Quinze joies du mariage" *''Le Passe-temps du prieur de Bussy et de son frère le cordelier'' *''Le Miroir des Moines'' *''Le Martyrologe des fausses langues et le chapitre général d'icelles tenu au temple de Danger'' *''Quatre chants royaux qui se trouvent parmi les Palinodies'' *''Le Débat de l'homme et de la femme'', written around 1461, went through at least seven separate editions between 1490 and 1530Attending to Early Modern Women VI
/ref>

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

admired his poetry.

Sources

*''Bibliothèque françoise, ou Histoire de la littérature françoise'', Claude-Pierre Goujet, 1754, 1755, at the house of P. J. Mariette and H.-L. Guerin

External links

*Bibliographie partielle en ligne
''Œuvres poétiques de Guillaume Alexis, prieur de Bucy''
1889, 1908, Firmin Didot.
Texte en ligne : ''Oraison très dévote''

Bibliography

Michel-André Bossy, ''Woman's Plain Talk in Le Débat de l'omme et de la femme by Guillaume Alexis.'' (Le franc-parler féminin dans "Le Débat de l'homme et de la femme" de Guillaume Alexis), Fifteenth-Century Studies 16 (1990): 23-41.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexis, Guillaume Year of birth missing Place of birth missing Year of death missing 15th-century births 16th-century deaths 15th-century French poets 16th-century French male writers 16th-century French poets Benedictine priors Benedictine writers French Catholic poets French male poets French people murdered abroad People from Évreux Writers from Normandy