From Mother and Daughter: Poems, Dialogues, and Letters of Les Dames Des Roches by Anne R. Larsen

Abstract

226 Reviews close reading, Elise Rajchenbach places thecollection in its literary,social, and philo sophical context. The introduction isparticularly helpful in showing how Pernette du Guillet imitates and then adapts her (male) models forher own purposes. The edition iscompleted with a fullbibliography, copious and useful notes, and glossary aswell as a series of appendices that reveal a set of potential sources and intertexts,all ofwhich allow the reader to situate theRymes in literaryhistory. The inclusion of the scores of themusic towhich theRymes were put will enable both interdisciplinary research and presumably the odd performance. Although possibly too sophisticated for the average undergraduate, this edition will be an essential point of reference for inter ested specialists and postgraduates. There is a lingering concern that the thorny issue ofwhether theRymes were written by awoman isnot fully resolved here.Moreover, it is relegated to a footnote (p. 2 I, n. 44). It is a shame that Mireille Huchon's recent and controversial Louise Labe: une creature de papier (Titre Courant, 34 (Geneva: Droz, 2006)) emerged too late to be taken into account in this edition. 'Women's writing' may not be what itappears tobe and thepoetic works ofmid-sixteenth-century Lyon have yet to reveal all their secrets. This edition will be a useful research tool for all who will work on this area. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER HUGH ROBERTS From Mother and Daughter: Poems, Dialogues, and Letters ofLes Dames des Roches. Ed. and trans. by ANNE R. LARSEN. (The Other Voice in Early Modern Eur ope) Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2006. 319 pp. $24. ISBN 978-o-226-72338-9. Madeleine ( 520-87) and Catherine ( 542-97) des Roches achieved celebrity in their day as amother-daughter writing partnership. They took pride in their exceptional status as published femalewriters who excelled insuch diverse genres as poetry, trans lation, and pastoral drama. With theMissives (I586), they became the firstFrench women topublish theirprivate letters. In FromMother andDaughter Anne R. Larsen provides an excellent edition with facingEnglish translation ofwell-chosen selections from their vuvre, including an introduction to their lives,context, and works. Larsen's translation complements her three-volume critical edition of theDames des Roches's works (Geneva: Droz, I993, I998, I999). Larsen's introduction describes how theDames both positioned themselves within and reached beyond theirbourgeois milieu inprovincial Poitiers. Only on the death ofMadeleine's second husband did they appear inprint, always as a duo. Although Madeleine's marriages limited her formal education, she continued to read classical and modern poets. She ensured her daughter surpassed her in learning: unlike her monoglot mother, Catherine learnt Italian and Latin. Rather than preparing her for marriage-Catherine remained single-Madeleine instilled in her a desire for eru dition and poetic fame.As Larsen's edition demonstrates, both women cite classical authors to establish theirauthority. The pair did not work in isolation: theyopened theirhome to a coterie ofwriters of both sexes, including Etienne Pasquier and Agrippa d'Aubigne. Their household heralded the seventeenth-century salon, such asMadeleine de Scudery's. In discussing their oeuvre,Larsen identifies threemain themes she associates with the terms vertu, loi, and plume. The Dames present learning as a Platonic means to vertu.Unlike humanist authors of conduct books, theyencourage women to study not solely to avoid idleness, but to play a public role and to acquire poetic immortality. Political commentators themselves, they subscribed to thePolitiques' motto: unefoi, une loi, un roi.The Secondes ?Euvres (I583) treats the civil wars which had recently MLR, IO 3.1, 2oo8 227 ravaged Poitiers. As 'poetes engagees', theyaddressed royalty in theirpoems. Indeed, Madeleine obtained compensation fromHenri III when Protestants destroyed her property. In terms of the third theme,plume, the intellectualwoman's relationship to her pen dominated theirworks. Not content with theirown accomplishments, they exhorted female readers to follow suit. Larsen's admirable volume makes the des Roches accessible to awider audience, and will prove an indispensable aid toundergraduate teachers. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON KATHERINE MACDONALD 'The Regrets', with 'TheAntiquities ofRome', Three Latin Elegies, and 'The Defense and theEnrichment of theFrench Language' (A Bilingual Edition). By JOACHIM DU BELLAY. Ed. and trans.by RICHARD HELGERSON. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2006. 44I PP. ?49. ISBN...