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Louise Charlin Perrin Labé, ( 1524 – 25 April 1566), also identified as La Belle Cordière (The Beautiful Ropemaker), was a feminist French poet of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
born in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
, the daughter of wealthy ropemaker Pierre Charly and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet.


Biography

Louise Labé was born in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
, into a family of ropemakers, surgeons, and butchers. Her father, Pierre Charly, was a successful ropemaker, who started a business on rue de l'Arbre sec, at the base of Saint Sébastien Hill in Lyon. When his first wife died in 1515, he married Etiennette Roybet, and had five children: Barthélemy, Francois, Mathieu, Claudine, and Louise. It is presumed that Louise Labé was born at some point between her father's wedding in 1516 and her mother's death in 1523. Records show that Labé's father, despite his humble beginnings, eventually achieved some social prestige. For example, in 1534, he was summoned before the Assemblée de Consuls of the city of Lyon to approve and participate in the founding of a relief agency for the poor. At some point, perhaps in a convent school, Labé received an education in foreign languages (Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish) and music, specifically the lute. As a young woman, she was acclaimed as an extraordinary horsewoman and archer. Her early biographers called her "la belle Amazone" and report that she dressed in male clothing and fought as a knight on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin (afterwards Henry II) at the siege of
Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...
. She was also said to have participated in tournament jousts performed in Lyon in honor of Henry II's visit. Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, also a Lyon ropemaker, a marriage dictated in her father's will, and which established the succession of the rope manufacturing business he was involved in. The business must have been prosperous, since the couple purchased a townhouse with a large garden in 1551, and, in 1557, a country estate at Parcieux-en-Dombes near Lyon. Lyon was the cultural centre of France in the first half of the sixteenth century and Labé hosted a literary salon that included many of the renowned Lyonnais poets and humanists, including
Maurice Scève Maurice Scève (c. 1501–c. 1564), was a French poet active in Lyon during the Renaissance period. He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch. This ...
, Clement Marot, Claude de Taillemont,
Pontus de Tyard Pontus de Tyard (also Thyard, Thiard) (c. 1521 – 23 September 1605) was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade". Life He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was ''seigneur'', but the exact year of his birth is ...
, and Pernette du Guillet. The poet
Olivier de Magny Olivier is the French form of the given name Oliver. It may refer to: * Olivier (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Olivier (surname), a list of people * Château Olivier, a Bordeaux winery *Olivier, Louisiana, a rural popul ...
, passing through Lyon on his way to Rome, fell in love with Labé, and is the likely subject of her love sonnets. Magny's ''Odes'' contained a poem (''A Sire Aymon'') that mocked and belittled Labé's husband (who had died by 1557). Perhaps inspired by the posthumous publication of Pernette du Guillet's collection of love poems in 1545, Labé began writing her own poetry. On March 13, 1555, Labé received from Henry II a privilège protecting her exclusive right to publish her works for a period of 5 years. Her ''Œuvres'' were printed in 1555, by the renowned Lyonnais printer
Jean de Tournes Jean de Tournes (1504 – 1564) was a French printer, book publisher and bookseller, and the founder of a long-lasting family printing business. From 1559 he was the , printer to the French king. Life Jean de Tournes was born in Lyon in ...
. In addition to her own writings, the volume contained twenty-four poems in her honour, authored by her male contemporaries and entitled ("Writings of diverse poets, in praise of Louise Labé of Lyons"). The authors of these praise poems (not all of whom can be reliably identified) include Maurice Scève,
Pontus de Tyard Pontus de Tyard (also Thyard, Thiard) (c. 1521 – 23 September 1605) was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade". Life He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was ''seigneur'', but the exact year of his birth is ...
, Claude de Taillemont,
Clément Marot Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet. Biography 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 (c.& ...
,
Olivier de Magny Olivier is the French form of the given name Oliver. It may refer to: * Olivier (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Olivier (surname), a list of people * Château Olivier, a Bordeaux winery *Olivier, Louisiana, a rural popul ...
,
Jean-Antoine de Baïf Jean Antoine de Baïf (; 19 February 1532 – 19 September 1589) was a French poet and member of the '' Pléiade''. Life Jean Antoine de Baïf was born in Venice, the natural son of the scholar Lazare de Baïf, who was at that time French a ...
,
Mellin de Saint-Gelais Mellin de Saint-Gelais (or ''Melin de Saint-Gelays'' or ''Sainct-Gelais''; c. 1491 – October, 1558) was a French poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I of France. Life He was born at Angoulême, most likely the natural ...
, Antoine du Moulin, and Antoine Fumee. Her contemporaries compare her to
Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
and hail Labé as the Tenth Muse. Debate on whether Labé was or was not a courtesan began in the sixteenth century, and has continued up to the present day. In 1557 a popular song on the scandalous behavior of ''La Cordière'' was published in Lyon. In 1560
Jean Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
referred to her
cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...
and called her a ''plebeia meretrix'' or ''common whore.'' Scholars deliberate carefully over what status to accord to such statements published in a piece of religious propaganda by a writer whose tone has been described as vicious and hysterical, and similarly question to what extent the historian Paradin, writing in 1573, was aiming at neutral objectivity in writing "She had a face more angelic than human, which was yet nothing in comparison with her spirit which was so chaste, so virtuous, so poetic and of such uncommon knowledge that it would seem to have been created by God so that we may wonder at it as something prodigious." In 1564, the plague broke out in Lyon, taking the lives of some of Labé's friends. In 1565, suffering herself from bad health, she retired to the home of her companion Thomas Fortin, a banker from
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, who witnessed her will (a document that is extant). She died there in 1566, and was buried on her country property close to Parcieux-en-Dombes, outside Lyon. Debates on whether or not she was a courtesan and other aspects of her life have not always been of interest to critics who have focussed increasing attention on her writings, especially her verse.


Works and reception

Her ''Œuvres'' include two prose works: a feminist preface, urging women to write, that is dedicated to a young noblewoman of Lyon, Clémence de Bourges; and a dramatic allegory in prose entitled ''Débat de Folie et d'Amour'' (translated into English by Robert Greene in 1608), which belongs to a long tradition with examples from antiquity through to the Middle Ages, a tradition that had gained contemporary prominence due to the controversial satire,
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
' ''
Praise of Folly ''In Praise of Folly'', also translated as ''The Praise of Folly'' ( la, Stultitiae Laus or ), is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511. Inspired by previous works of the Italian hum ...
''. The ''Débat,'' the most admired of her works in the sixteenth century, was used as the source for one of the fables of
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 ...
, and was translated into English by Robert Greene in 1584. Her poetry consists of three
elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
in the style of the ''
Heroides The ''Heroides'' (''The Heroines''), or ''Epistulae Heroidum'' (''Letters of Heroines''), is a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroi ...
'' of
Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...
, and twenty-four
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...
s that draw on the traditions of
Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ...
and
Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
ism. The great theme of her sonnets are the longings, torments and satisfactions of a passionate love which, however noble, is very much of this world, with no metaphysical concepts evoked and no references to a more perfect world than this one. A critic such as Breghot du Lut, writing for the 1824 edition of her works, found that he must apologize to the reader for her explicitness of some of her works;
Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he s ...
, in 1845, expressed something that was to become a refrain for readers and critics up to this day: despite her work showing that she was highly learned, this does not prevent her from seeming to speak to contemporary readers in a very direct way. Her poetry was singled out among that of her contemporaries for special praise by
Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogn ...
, with Ferdimand Brunetière, in his 1900 article on the Pléiade and Lyonnese schools, writing that her poetry was the first time in French that passion was expressed with such vehemence and naiveté. Modern critics cite her rejection of the more showy or extravagant metaphors and poetic effects employed by poets such as Scève or Pernette du Guillet as one of the key components of her originality and appeal for the modern reader, with Jerry C. Nash writing in 1980 "Labé's lyrical voice is truly one of the best expressions in literature of artful simplicity, of a consistent and masterly synthesis of substance and form, of passion and poetry". Readers have, from the middle of the last century, commented on how in her verse she presents women in a way that goes against prevailing attitudes about what a woman's nature was or what made a woman either praiseworthy or blameworthy, a feature which makes her appear more in step with modern ideas than her contemporaries were. The frank expression of female desire had previously been confined to comic genres such as
fabliaux A ''fabliau'' (; plural ''fabliaux'') is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between c. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitudes ...
. In 2005, Labé's work was included on the programme of a very prestigious exam in France, sparking a flurry of academic publications. The most remarked upon of these was the 2006 book ''Louise Labé: une créature de papier'' (Droz); discussed below. The sonnets have been her most famous works following the early modern period, and were translated into German by
Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogn ...
and into Dutch by
Pieter Cornelis Boutens Pieter Cornelis BoutensHis original family name was changed from Bouters to Boutens by a decision of the District Court of Middelburg, 14 March 1898, Act No. 79 (February 20, 1870 – March 14, 1943) was a Dutch poet, classicist, and mystic. Bi ...
. They have been translated into English, maintaining the exact rhyme patterns of the originals, by poet Annie Finch (published in the same volume with a translation of Labé's prose by Deborah Lesko Baker, University of Chicago Press, 2006), and by Richard Siebuth in a volume published by NYRB (2014).


Marc Fumaroli and Mireille Huchon

In her 2006 book the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
professor and specialist of Rabelais Mireille Huchon controversially argued that, despite over four centuries of scholarship and biographical evidence to the contrary, Louise Labé was not the author of the works signed with her name but rather that these works were by the Lyonnais poets
Maurice Scève Maurice Scève (c. 1501–c. 1564), was a French poet active in Lyon during the Renaissance period. He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch. This ...
,
Olivier de Magny Olivier is the French form of the given name Oliver. It may refer to: * Olivier (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Olivier (surname), a list of people * Château Olivier, a Bordeaux winery *Olivier, Louisiana, a rural popul ...
, Claude de Taillemont,
Jacques Peletier du Mans Jacques Pelletier du Mans, also spelled Peletier ( la, Iacobus Peletarius Cenomani, 25 July 1517 – 17 July 1582) was a humanist, poet and mathematician of the French Renaissance. Born in Le Mans into a bourgeois family, he studied at the Co ...
, Guillaume des Autels, and others, and by the publisher
Jean de Tournes Jean de Tournes (1504 – 1564) was a French printer, book publisher and bookseller, and the founder of a long-lasting family printing business. From 1559 he was the , printer to the French king. Life Jean de Tournes was born in Lyon in ...
. The conservative critic
Marc Fumaroli Marc Fumaroli (10 June 1932 – 24 June 2020) was a French historian and essayist who was widely respected as an advocate for French literature and culture. While born in Marseille, Fumaroli grew up in the Moroccan city of Fez, and served in th ...
called Huchon's argument "irrefutable" in the literature supplement of ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
''. Numerous critics and scholars examined Huchon's essay and frequently found her reasoning absurd, judging that her interpretation of the biographical evidence seemed to show inexplicable bias and reliance on unfounded assumptions. The lack of any evidence in support of her thesis was a further reason for the ease with which many dismissed her ideas as mistaken and considered Huchon's work to have made no valuable contribution to scholarship. The list of eminent scholars opposing Huchon include Emmanuel Buron, Henri Hours, Bernard Plessy, Madeleine Lazard, Daniel Martin, Eliane Viennot, and many others. Despite strong objections from most Labé scholars, however, Huchon's audacious thesis has not entirely disappeared from view.The French webpage entitled "Louise Labé attaquée!" ("Louise Labe attacked!") at is collecting published responses to Huchon's book and making them available online. Scholars who disagree with part or all of Huchon's theory include Emmanuel Buron, "Claude de Taillemont et les ''Escriz de divers Poëtes à la louenge de Louïze Labé Lionnoize.'' Discussion critique de ''Louise Labé, une créature de papier'', de Mireille Huchon," ''L'Information littéraire'' 2, 2006, p. 38-46 (); Henri Hours and Bernard Plessy, "Sur Louise Labé, rien de nouveau," ''Le Bulletin des Lettres,'' October 2006, p. 3-5

); Madeleine Lazard, "Droit de réponse envoyé au ''Monde des livres,'' non publié"

); Daniel Martin, "Louise Labé est-elle ‘une creature de papier’?" ''Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance'' 63, December 2006, p. 7-37 (); and Eliane Viennot, "Notice sur Louise Labé," ''Théâtre de femmes de l’Ancien Régime,'' December 2006, p. 377-379

).


Works in English

*''Complete poetry and prose : a bilingual edition'', Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, 2006. , *''Louise Labé's complete works'', Troy, N.Y.: Whitston Pub. Co., 1986. , *''Debate of folly and love'', New York: P. Lang, 2000. , *''Love sonnets'', New York: New Directions, 1947. *''Love sonnets & elegies'', New York: New York Review Books, 2014. ,


See also

* Pernette Du Guillet * Enzo Giudici


Notes


References

*
Marc Fumaroli's review of Mireille Huchon's book
published in
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
, May 5, 2006 . The links to this and many more published reactions to the book can be found on the Siefar website, http://www.siefar.org/debats/louise-labe.html *Louise Labé, ''Complete Poetry and Prose,'' ed. and trans. Deborah Lesko Baker and
Annie Finch Annie Finch (born October 31, 1956) is an American poet, critic, editor, translator, playwright, and performer and the editor of the first major anthology of literature about abortion. Her poetry is known for its often incantatory use of rhythm, ...
, University of Chicago Press, 2006. * Louise Labé, ''Œuvres completes,'' ed. François Rigolot, Flammarion, 2004. Critical edition and biographical chronology. * Madeleine Lazard, ''Louise Labé Lyonnaise,'' Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2004. Biography. *) Enzo Giudici, ''Louise Labé, essai'', 1981 . * Oeuvres poétiques / Louise Labé. précédées des Rymes de Pernette Du Guillet. avec une sélection de Blasons du corps féminin / édition présentée, établie et annotée par Françoise Charpentier. Gallimard, 1983


Bibliography

* Hennigfeld, Ursula. ''Der ruinierte Körper. Petrarkistische Sonette in transkultureller Perspektive''. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008. * Cameron, Keith. "Louise Labé: Renaissance poet and feminist". New York: Berg, 1990.


External links

* * * A collection of 26 published responses to the debate, including biographies etc., many freely accessible online http://www.siefar.org/debats/louise-labe.html
Biography, Analysis
Contains links to online translations by a selection of different translators, essays and reviews.

Contains digital images of a 1556 edition of her works and background information.
Translations of 24 sonnets
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labe, Louise 1520s births 1566 deaths 16th-century French women writers 16th-century French poets Female wartime cross-dressers French women poets Writers from Lyon Women in war in France Women in 16th-century warfare