Marguerite de Valois 'la reine Margot' by Éliane Viennot

Abstract

I I I2 Reviews Book vi as vengeance, and Book vii as judgement. This part is by far themost fastidi ous. It iscertainly useful for its collection of references to the Bible and toCalvinism as well as for itsmeticulous display of apocalyptic themes and its establishment of a radi cal way of thinking which practically excludes the notion of pardon and which defends divine justice following the example of the theodicy. Though the biblical index which closes the book isprecious for the sake of research, the detailed reading of Les Tragiques proves to be deceiving. In pointing out Aubigne's biblical and Calvinist orthodoxy, to the detriment of somany other models, the author traces the intertextual references and all too often produces a sterile and repetitive enumeration which neglects other aspects of the text (poetic dynamics, polemics, ethics, historical aspects). Largely de pendent on the notes of the editions of Garnier-Plattard (Paris: Societe des Textes Francais Modernes, I990), Lestringant (Paris: Gallimard, 2003), and most of all Fanlo (Paris: Champion, I995), this work, though it does well to touch on crucial problems dealing with the notions of justice, pardon, and individual and collective responsibi lity, produces little in the way of new elements in the interpretation of Les Tragiques. UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SAMUEL JUNOD Marguerite de Valois 'la reineMargot'. By ELIANEVIENNOT. (Collection Tempus) Paris: Perrin. 2005. 660 pp. Ei i. ISBN 2-262-02377-8. Marguerite de Valois (I553-I615) was a diplomat, a patron of the arts and amuse, an author and a poet, and a prominent salonniere. Alas, she is known less for her achievements and more for her traditional womanly/familial roles as daughter of King Henri II, sister of three kings, and wife of a fourth (Henri IV). Above all, she is known for her marriage-turned-bloodbath on Saint Bartholomew's Night, I572, her humiliating expulsion from her husband's court, and her alleged sexual promiscuity, rivalled by none. As both the title and the content of Eliane Viennot's scholarly and yet highly readable book demonstrate, Marguerite de Valois encompasses two women in one: the flesh-and-blood woman, one of the more accomplished women of the French Renaissance, and the bloodthirsty and carnal 'reineMargot', whose life lasted from the early seventeenth century to the I994 release of Patrice Chereau's cinematic version of the queen's life. While the two women have always been separate entities, Viennot points out the difficulties in distinguishing the 'true'Marguerite from the legend. Already during the Queen's lifetime, her husband's entourage blackened her image, thus justifying the King's annulment of their marriage. Court historians falsified documents and in vented anecdotes that later historians relied upon. And yet Viennot succeeds in separ ating thewheat from the chaff, and reconstructs the complex personality and historical context of the last heir to the Valois family and fortune. She is especially good on the Queen's diplomatic mission to Flanders and onMarguerite's patronage of the arts. It is a pity, though, that Viennot does not pay more attention toMarguerite's own writings, especially her Discours docte et subtil envoye a l'autheur de Secrets moraux (i 6 i 8). This long letter, Marguerite's contribution to the Querelle de femmes, as well as her self-presentation in her Memoires, testifies to the Queen's attempts to create a feminine literary persona while following gender and class preconceptions of her time. Her engagement with these issues highlights the difficulties that elite women of Marguerite's time experienced in their attempts to articulate a new 'feminist' literary strategy. A huge body of literature over the last thirty years has uncovered the inge nuities and strategies of emancipation of women authors of the French Renaissance, but inViennot's book Marguerite is portrayed more as amuse than as an author in her own right. MLR, I01.4, 2006 I I I3 Viennot's 'second biography' documents the vagaries of theQueen's image through the ages. During the early years of the seventeenth century, Marguerite was remem bered most often as a patron of the arts and an accomplished author. But in the I630s, when Louis XIII and his courtiers initiated a...