L’idéal corrompu et l’idéal retrouvé. La fonction de la métaphore dans le Donet baillié au roy Loÿs douzieme de Jean Molinet

Abstract

The corrupted ideal and the rediscovered ideal. The function of metaphor in Donet baillié au roy Loÿs twelfth by Jean Molinet The subject matter of the analysis is an interesting poem by Jean Molinet. This paper focuses on the aspect of a certain nostalgia for the ideal which aims at both the semantic and poetic aspects of the poem. The existential ideal ‒ conceived from a spiritual perspective – is transmitted through a refined metaphorical system, conveying complex ideas and equivocal meanings, and covers two eponymous aspects, one of which turns out to be denied by the second. From an eschatological perspective, the author demonstrates how insignificant the old “worldly” ideal and alleged intellectual ideal will be in the eyes of God at the moment of Judgment. The opposition within the same metaphor of the two antithetical ideals is a process accentuating a revalorization of the existential perspective of the poet.