Marguerite de Navarre, Œuvres complètes ed. by Nicole Cazauran (review)

Abstract

MLR, 98.4, 2003 979 bibliography of works consulted, the rare footnotes to the linguistic section make no reference to standard manuals and the references in the critical notes are to dictionaries , not to manuals of Middle French language. The longest chapter of the introduction (pp. 51-98) studies the process of 'prosification'. The firstsection, deal? ing with modifications to content, gives a summary ofthe procedures of abbreviatio and amplificatio; the second studies changes to the lexicon of the text imposed by the passage from Old to Middle French; and the third a variety of stylistic implications of the process of adaptation, being a combination of 'translation' from one state of the language to another and transposition from one literary medium (epic verse) to another (narrative prose). This chapter, which Tylus links specifically to the idea that Adenet's poem was the source of the prose, is followed by one which considers links to other French versions ofthe legend. Because these are considered purely as potential sources, no foreign accounts are considered, even though Tylus evokes a vague 'oral tradition' as a source for certain narrative features, but does not consider that nonFrench versions might be witnesses to such variants of whatever origin. The edition is completed by copious critical notes, mostly dealing with points of vocabulary or linguistic interpretation, a very workmanlike glossary, and an index of proper names. University of Edinburgh Philip E. Bennett Marguerite de Navarre, (Euvres completes. Ed. by Nicole Cazauran. Vol. in: Le Triomphe de I'Agneau. Ed. by Simone de Reyff. (Textes de la Renaissance, 42) Paris: Champion. 2001. 301pp. 160 F. ISBN 2-7453-0576-x. Le Triomphe de VAgneau, probably dating from before 1540, appeared for the first time in the celebrated Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princesses of 1547 (Lyons: Jean de Tournes), on which this critical edition is based. Although Marguerite's writings are scarcely homogeneous, Le Triomphe marks a new departure, which a long intro? duction describes in considerable detail. The poem's 'je' is here the objective, anony? mous narrator of an epic on a cosmic theme, derived from the essential intertextofthe Apocalypse, where prophetic vision and triumph are indissolubly linked. In effect, the 'apocalyptic' reverberations of Revelations are played down in favour of the 'face lumineuse' (p. 17) ofa book 'qui se veut avant tout porteur d'esperance' (p. 19). And so Le Triomphe is not a simple paraphrase ofthe biblical text but a rerendering of some of its material in a narrower, optimistic focus where the figureofthe Lamb triumphant has the central role. A gratifyingly detailed reading of the poem's 1624 lines shows that 'le trace precis qui resume l'histoire du salut a coups de raisonnements ternaires se laisse encombrer par la reiteration presque obsessionnelle des circonstances de la Chute et de la Passion', so that its 'relative harmonie [. . .] semble en definitive moins richede significationque les anomalies qui entravent cette limpiditeapparente' (p. 54). A constant shiftingbetween the temporal and the eternal, reinforced by dialogic modulations , reflectsthe state of humanity in the context of salvation, a major motif of the text: 'Insaisissable a partir des categories temporelles, l'eternite ne peut etre devinee et enoncee que dans le temps' (p. 56). The various modalities of intertextual, here scriptural, allusion, stemming from Marguerite's well-known 'innutrition biblique', thoroughly rehearsed by Simone de Reyff, reflect 'une tension vers l'intemporel et l'innommable que contredisent sans cesse les limites de la temporalite et du langage' (p. 72). This expert analysis of Marguerite's striving to say the ineffable,to locate the eternal in human time, throws considerable light on the spiritual context of the 1530s. The text is followed by compendious annotations, a glossary, a note on unusual grammatical forms, an appendix introducing and providing the highly modified text of Le Triomphe de I'Agneau as it appears in the Annonces de l Esprit et de I'Amefidele 980 Reviews of 1602 ([Geneva]: heirs of Eustace Vignon), an index of Biblical quotations and allusions, an index of proper names, and finally a copious bibliography. The volume bodes well for this new critical edition of Marguerite's complete works. University of Wales, Lampeter T. Peach Noel Du...