The ''Satire Ménippée'' () or ''La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne'' was a political and satirical work in prose and verse that mercilessly parodied the Catholic League and Spanish pretensions during the

Wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

in France, and championed the idea of an independent but Catholic France. The work was a collaborative effort of various functionaries, lawyers, clerics and scholars. It appeared at a time that coincided with the ascendance of

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

and the defeat of the League. The title derives from the classical Greek and Roman literary genre " menippean satire", a form of

carnivalesque Carnivalesque is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. It originated as "carnival" in Mikhail Bakhtin's ''Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics'' and was further develope ...

literature in a free-form mixture of prose, verse and dialogue. Mikhail Bakhtin called the ''Satyre Ménippée'' "one of the greatest political satires of world literature".

Composition and historical significance

The ''Satyre Ménippée'' was written in 1593 and published in

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

in 1594 during the Etats Généraux convened in Paris by the leader of the Catholic League,

Charles, Duke of Mayenne Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (26 March 1554 – 3 October 1611), or Charles de Guise, was a French nobleman of the house of Guise and a military leader of the Catholic League, which he headed during the French Wars of Religion, followi ...

. Charles hoped to get himself elected to the French throne in the place of the pretender to the throne, the future

. The work was conceived by

Pierre le Roy Pierre Le Roy (1717–1785) was a French clockmaker. He was the inventor of the detent escapement, the temperature-compensated balance and the isochronous balance spring. His developments are considered as the foundation of the modern precisi ...

, canon of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

and

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

to the cardinal of Bourbon, during discussions with friends at the home of

Jacques Gillot Jacques Gillot, b. 4 March 1948 in Gosier, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, was the President of the General Council of Guadeloupe. He has been chairing the General Council March 2001 to April 2015. Gillot was elected to the Fren ...

, canon of the Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris. The work was written by

Nicolas Rapin Nicolas Rapin (1535 – 16 February 1608) was a French Renaissance magistrate, royal officer, translator, poet and satirist, known for being one of the authors of the Satire Ménippée (1593/4) and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the Holy L ...

, Jean Passerat and

Florent Chrestien Florent Chrestien (January 26, 1541 – October 3, 1596) 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 ...

, and edited/revised by Pierre Pithou. The philosophy of the group around Pithou and Rapin, which formed the ideological motivation for ''Satire Ménippée'', was that of the "

Politiques During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ''politiques'' () were those in a position of power who put the success and well-being of their state above all else. During the Wars of Religion, this included moderates of both religious faiths ( ...

" – moderate Catholics who privileged peace, conceived of a distinction between the State and Religion, and sought political accommodation with the

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

s. By the end of the civil wars, the "politiques" were the principal target of attack of the Catholic League.

Content

The work includes a description of a procession and all the forces of the League, a burlesque description of the opening of the États Généreaux, imaginary speeches by real personages such as the Duke of Mayenne, the legate of the Pope, and the cardinals Pelvé (attributed to Chrestien) and Aubray (attributed to Pithou), and a number of additional satires and epigrams. The writers paint the miseries of the nation and the blindness of their detractors, and they encourage an alliance of the people and the monarchy to save the nation. The comical and openly derisive brilliance of the work made it extremely popular at the time. Notably, Diderot's '' Encyclopédie'' praises the work for its "singularity" and notes its usefulness to Henry IV.

Bibliography

Satyre Menippee de la Vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne et de la tenue des Estats de Paris, MARTIN Martial (édition critique de), Paris, Honoré Champion, 2007, "Textes de la Renaissance", n° 117, 944 p.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Satire Menippee Politics of France Political satire books French political satire French Wars of Religion Literary collaborations 1594 books

Composition and historical significance

Content

Bibliography

See also

References

External links