Renaissance de l’épopée: la poésie épique en France de 1572 à 1623 by Bruno Méniel

Abstract

MLR, 101.2, 2006 535 of Lucretius, whom Montaigne studied carefully. He detects Lucretian influence in Montaigne's views on 'fortune' and highlights Epicurean and Lucretian strands in Montaigne's thought. Ann Hartle provides a survey of ancient scepticism and ofMontaigne's 'Apology' that would be useful for beginners. She defines Montaigne's transformed scepticism as 'an openness towhat is possible and an overcoming of presumption at the deepest level' (p. I93). She finds thatMontaigne makes definitive moral judgements and shows some openness to change. He does not share the sceptical aim of imperturbability; he cultivates self-knowledge, amore Socratic than a sceptic goal. His Catholic faith is another non-sceptical aspect of the Essais. J. B. Schneewind also looks at the 'Apology', while examining Montaigne's rela tionship tomoral philosophy. Sebond believes that experience gives us information necessary to infer with certainty what our good is.Montaigne argues that natural reason alone will not supply us with practical knowledge. He thinks that no ancient convincingly defined the highest good. Rather like St Paul, he believes we have our own court within us (III. 2). Schneewind places Montaigne in a philosophical context and shows that he was admired by Kant. There is inevitably some repetition in this volume. The 'Apology' is looked at from various angles. Two contributors quote Montaigne's declaration that he likes moderating words such as 'perhaps' (pp. 63, I85). But the philosophical complexities of Montaigne's text, and of its context, are thoroughly surveyed. Ample footnotes refer to important critical works, and there is a good index. BIRKBECK, UNIVERSITYOFLONDON JEANBRAYBROOK Renaissance de lV'popee: lapoesie epique en France de I 572 a I623. By BRUNOMfENIEL. (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 389) Geneva: Droz. 2004. 555 pp. SwF 202. ISBN 2-600-oo877-2. This revised doctoral thesis, prepared under the direction of Daniel Menager, is a vast survey of the abundant production of epic poetry in France between the year that saw the publication of Ronsard's Franciade-also the year of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre and two years before the first attested use of the adjective epique inFrench and that inwhich the noun epopee itself was coined. The first of the three canonical sections, 'Theorie et pratique de l'epos', begins by examining the reception of earlier epic models: from antiquity (Homer, Vergil, Lucretius, Ovid, and Lucan), theMiddle Ages (chansons de geste and romans de chevalerie), and Italy (Ariosto and Tasso). It subsequently discusses theoretical definitions of the heroic poem and a number of examples of 'poemes a dimension epique', selected from a corpus of some eighty works. In addition to well-known texts such as the Tragiques or the Sepmaine, the reader encounters many an -ide (e.g. La Stuartide), -iade (La Savoysiade, Guisiade, Lydiade, Christiade, Mariade, etc.), and -ee (La Loyssee), of which s/he may well have been unaware. Bruno Meniel concludes that while Renaissance theoreticians developed their reflection on the heroic poem, theory none the less lagged behind the practice of poets, which was considerably more innovative and varied. In the absence of a satisfactory contemporary theory, the second part of the study proposes a typology of the works surveyed. These are classified as poemesfabuleux or veridiques, the former including heroic and romance-type poems, the latter, poemes de combat and works of biblical or encyclopaedic inspiration. The characteristics and theoretical issues raised by each are discussed, as are their use of versification, rhetoric, narrative techniques and motifs, and, finally, the vision of the world (God, man, society, and nature) that they convey. The section ends with the important insight 536 Reviews that the epic poem in the Renaissance represents 'un effort pour penser, a partir de situations concretes, qu'elles soient historiques ou fictives, l'action divine sur la destin&ehumaine et sur lavie de lanature' (p.425). Such an ambitious project explains in large part why the epic was so popular during the period of social and intellectual upheaval represented by the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and theWars of Religion. It also accounts for the great variety of epic endeavours (characterized by Meniel as 'l'eclatement de l'epos'), which represent not shared but divided and even opposed...