Jean Lemaire de Belges Epistre d'Hector au roy by Jean d'Auton , Adrian Armstrong , Jennifer Britneli (review)

Abstract

MLR, 100.2, 2005 495 A point concerning the online version alone is that, unless the file is downloaded or printed, the reduced magnification needed to display the French and English texts side by side also significantly reduces the readability of the font. This is a pity as Eley has succeeded in producing a translation of the texts which is at once readable and spirited and which remains very close to the lines and structure of the French original. Eley and the editors of the series are to be congratulated in making available scholarly editions of medieval texts, thereby not only aiding the researcher, but expanding the range of texts which may be considered practical for teaching, so sustaining interest in the French Middle Ages among our students. University of Wales Swansea Alison Williams Epistre du roya Hector et autres pieces de circonstance (1511-1513). By Jean Lemaire de Belges. Epistre d'Hector au roy. By Jean d'Auton. Ed. by Adrian Arm? strong and Jennifer Britnell. Paris: Societe des Textes Francais Modernes. 2000. Ixxxvi+i39pp. ?19. ISBN 2-86503-260-4. This edition contains several pieces by one major Grand Rhetoriqueur, Jean Lemaire de Belges, and one text by the rather less distinguished Jean d'Auton. The two pieces designated in the title constitute a pseudo-correspondence: Jean d'Auton composes a letterfrom Hector, one ofthe neufpreux and accredited Trojan ancestor ofthe French, now safely reposing in the Elysian fields, to his descendant, the 'heroic' Louis XII, currently embroiled in his Italian campaigns, and Jean Lemaire joins in the game by penning a rather more witty reply from Louis. It is useful to have these two epistles side by side in a modern edition. The pieces de circonstance are a job lot of propaganda, the most important (and longest) of which, designated by the editors Vim Ludovicus habet (the superscription of a miniature in the most reliable manuscript version), is an attack on Pope Julius II, very typical ofthe writing furnished by the propaganda ma? chine of Louis XII. As the editors show, all of the pieces de circonstance are important in illuminating the career of Jean Lemaire, who was trying to consolidatehis position at the court of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne. One might add that, since they are hardly great literature, their interest might seem to be principally historical and poli? tical, in sheddingsome light on polemical writing in the reign of Louis XII: this is still an area that needs to be explored, despite recent work on this period by, forinstance, Cynthia Brown and Gerard Defaux, and indeed the editors of this volume. However, the present edition is also very convincing in demonstrating the extent to which the interest of these pieces resides in their exploitation of persuasive techniques?a whole section of the introduction is entitled 'Rhetorique politique'. Amid various illumi? nating comments on structure and form, I found particularly fascinating the remarks on the extended use of proverbs in Dyalogue de Vertumilitaire etJeunessefrancoise. The main strength of this edition is precisely the application of modern scholar? ship to a group of related texts, some but not all of which have been edited before. Here they are given de luxe treatment: scrupulousestablishment ofthe text, thorough bibliographical information, and an excellent detailed historical and literaryintroduc? tion. Furthermore, the editors are to be particularly congratulated on the minutiae ofthe edition, which makes it extremely reader-friendly. The notes (footnotes rather than irritatingendnotes) are good at guiding the reader through the labyrinth of early sixteenth-century history and politics, the index des noms is excellent at identifying unknown or little-known people and places, and the glossary is thorough and reliable. And yet I have to confess to a totally unfashionable regret that so such impeccable scholarship has been lavished on texts whose intrinsic value one might just question. University of Glasgow Christine M. Scollen-Jimack ...