14 - Second rhetoric and the grands rhétoriqueurs

Summary

Around the turn of the century literary historians bestowed the name ‘Ecole des Grands Rhétoriqueurs’ on an array of writers from the latter half of the fifteenth century through to the early reign of Francis I. Thereafter, they were viewed either as latecomers in a ‘waning’ Middle Ages or as precursors of more gifted ‘schools’ of Renaissance poets. As rewriting the past has progressed, a more robust reassessment has emerged for the aggregate works of humanists, artists, diplomats, mythologizing historians, and architects named Jean Meschinot (1422–91), Henri Baude (?1430–96), Jean Molinet (1435–1507), Destrées (?), Jean Robertet (?–?1502), Octavien de Saint-Gelais (1468–1502), Guillaume Cretin (?1472–1525), André de la Vigne (1470–1515), Pierre Gringore (1475– ?1539), Jean Marot (?1463–1526), Jean Bouchet (1476–1557), Jean Parmentier (1494–1529), and Jean Lemaire de Belges (1473–1516) – with Petrarch, Eustache Deschamps, Christine de Pisan, and others on the margin.

Their improved rank in the evolution of Renaissance culture has stemmed from: discounting the polemic agenda of sixteenth-century arts poétiques; recognition of intertextual recollections as indices of artistic continuity; modern methodologies of decoding poetic language as a cultural artefact; and deeper conversance with the creative flair of this loose coterie which theatrically memorialized the liturgical festivals and offcial functions of the newly enriched bourgeoisie. They dramatized courtly gestures in the palaces of the powerful, ennobled the deeds of Burgundian dukes, the House of Austria, and embellished venturous policies of Louis XI and Charles VIII. No longer are these poets disparaged for the virtuosity of their rhyme couronnée, rétrograde, léonine, équivoquée bilingue, double or triple, rauque, fratrisée, enchaînée, annexée, and so on.