The Poetry of François Villon: Text and Context by Jane H. M. Taylor (review)

Abstract

486 Reviews The Poetry of Franfois Villon: Text and Context. By Jane H. M. Taylor. (Cam? bridge Studies in French, 68) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. xii + 234pp. $64.95. ISBN 0-521-79270-3. Avoiding the tendency of some earlier critics to formulate an all-embracing view of Villon, Jane Taylor looks at his multiple identities. Accordingly she is deliberately selective in the poems she analyses, and her purpose is to demonstrate the differentways in which, far from being an alienated outsider, Villon enthusiastically engages with the poetics of his day, well aware ofthe work of his predecessors and contemporaries. At the same time she warns ofthe difnculty forus in reading fifteenth-centurypoetry, which cannot be judged by modern ideas of originality. Neither a poet of the times nor his reader would be bothered by the question of influence; on the contrary, the pleasure of reading was to be found in recognition and in extracting meaning below the surface. She begins by examining the 'poetics ofengagement', which characterizes all late medieval poetry, exploring a range of examples that show how poems were written as deliberate echoes of one another, so that poetry was collaborative within a network of a cultural elite. Turning to Villon, she concentrates on the conflicting and confusing personae and viewpoints suggested by differentpoems or moments within them, looking firstat his use of the martyred-lover motif at the opening of the Lais and the closing of the Testament, together with the intratextual relationship between the lyricLay and Bergeronnecte,the Ballade a s'amye, the Verset,and Ballade finale. To appreciate Villon's three Ubi sunt? poems, which revitalize a tired topos, a cross-reading is necessary, supported by the reader's skill in recognizingphoneticand rhyming links to perceive not only his originality but also his ability to challenge the reader to rethink his assumptions on the topic. The Belle Heaulmiere and the Double ballade demonstrate Villon's dialogue with the Roman de la Rose, but the feminine voice adopted forthe Belle Heaulmiere is counterbalanced by the masculine discourse by which he then renounces love in the tradition of the conge. In the Contredictz de Franc Gontier, Villon engages with the commonplaces of the pastoral, dismissing the idyllic and turning it into an attack on poverty. As for the Ballade de la Grosse Margot, there are clear affinitieswith the sotteballade, but it goes beyond the literary associations which alert readers would easily recognize and raises issues of a moral and ethical nature, particularly when it is linked to the Ballade pour prier Nostre Dame. The final poem discussed is the Ballade pour Robert d'Estouteville, which is usually rather ignored by critics, but its importance lies in the differentview of love from the rest ofthe Testament that it projects. Overall this is a lively, intelligent, and informative study, the fruitof mature reflection on this most elusive of poets. University of Birmingham Leslie C. Brook (Euvres spirituelles1510-1516. By GabrielledeBourbon. Ed. by Evelyne BerriotSalvadore . (Textes de la Renaissance, 26) Paris: Champion. 1999. 263 pp. ISBN 2-7453-0141-1. As Evelyne Berriot-Salvadore remarks in the introduction to her competently executed edition, Gabrielle de Bourbon is known to modern readers primarily as the wife of Louis II de La Tremoille, the 'chevalier sans reproche' celebrated by Gabrielle's protege, the rhetoriqueurJean Bouchet. In additionto playing a political role, however, Gabrielle left, in manuscript form, a corpus of devotional works addressed to a lay audience, which betray close engagement with both the literary fashions and the theo? logical debates ofthe day. The Petit traictesur lesdoulleurs de la Passion du doulx Jesus et de sa benoistemereand the Voyage espirituelentreprinspar I'Ame devotepour par venir en la cite de Bon Repoux narrate the spiritual evolution of the Ame devote' guided by the ...