Marot (For the record)

Dear all,

There were three of us that met to discuss Marot a couple of weeks ago, and it was perfectly lovely. I copied all handouts for absentees and put them in everyone's boxes in Folwell, but for the record, here's my little write-up:

Marot : Chronologie

1496 Clément Marot born, in Cahors, Quercy

1514 First attempts at poetry. Enters service of Nicolas I of Neufville.

1515 Marot accepts position as Clerk of the Chancellory and is based out of Basoche. François I takes the throne. (Ballades I, II, and IV)

1517 Luther nails the 95 theses to the Wittenberg door

1518 (Ballade VII, Rondeau XIII)

1519 Marot enters the service of Marguerite d’Angoulême. (Epîtres I-III and VI; Ballades VIII, IX, and X; Rondeaux XXXII-XXXIV)

1523 Clément VIII, pope

1526 Marot is imprisoned at the Châtelet in Paris (later moved to Chartres) for eating pork during Lent. (L’Enfer, Roman de la Rose)

1527 Marot establishes « Alliance » with Anne of Alençon. Marguerite marries Henri d’Albret, becoming queen of Navarre. (Epître I, Rondeau XXXVIII, Déploration de Florimond Robertet)

1528-34 Period of great favor for the poet at the Court as « valet de chambre ». Married by this time and has a son, Michel, and a daughter.

1531 Falls ill to the plague for three long months. (L’Epistre au roi pour avoir été derobé)

1532 The charge against Marot for infringing on the rules of Lent is renewed, but his connections with Marguerite work in his favor this time. L’adolescence clementine achieves great success.

1533 Agreement at Marseille between Clément VII and François I to combat the Lutheran ‘heresy’.

1534-1536 Pope Clément VII dies; Paul III. Marot is arrested and released, and remains under suspicion and eventually flees to Ferrera, Italy, and later to Venice (Beau Tétin, L’Epître envoyée de Venise à Madame la duchesse de Ferrare.)

1536-37 In October, Marot returns to Lyon, France, where he publically renounces the Lutheran « heresy, » regaining entrance into the Catholic church and the favor of the court as well. (La Suite de l’Adolescence clémentine, Premier livre de la Métamorphose d’Ovide, translated into verse, Epigramme CXLIV)

1538 Publication of Oeuvres de Clément Marot in Lyon.

1539 Marot’s translation of Six Sonnets de Petrarque. Publication of L’Enfer.

1541 Publication of Trente Psaumes in Paris, with the endorsement of the Faculty of Theology.

1542 Second publication of L’Enfer. Psaumes is now declared forbidden. Marot flees to Geneva, where he is welcomed by John Calvin.

1543 Vingt autres psaumes de Marot is published. Marot tries to return to France by way of Savoie.

1544 Clément Marot dies, Turin

1547 Epigrammes is published.

Marot, Style, and Genre

Marot practised the following genres : Epître, Complainte, Épitaphe, Ballade, Rondeau, Chanson, Élégie, Coq-à-l’Âne, Épigramme, Opuscule (strictly 500 lines of rimes plâtes or rimes croisées).

He also completed several important translation projects that reflect the literary, intellectual, and even spiritual trends of his time, including : La Première Eglogue de Virgile, Le Jugement de Minos, Cinq Sonnets de Petrarque, and Cinquante Psaumes.

His poetic style is masterful, but he is less pre-occupied with building his poetic empire as perhaps his predecessors were (not to mention his near-contemporaries in the Pléiade) :

L’originalité de Marot par rapport à ses prédécesseurs ne procède ni d’une rupture ni d’une révolte libératrice, mais, de manière plus insensible et plus humble, de l’adaptation d’un langage céremonial et codéaux inflexions personnelles d’un chant ou d’une conversation. (8, L’Adolescence, Gallimard)

This conversational tendency in his poetry is quite evident, especially considering that the genres he was well-versed in lended themselves well to dialogue:

...epîtres , complaintes, rondeaux, et chanson...Quel soit le genre dont relèvent des poèmes divers par la structure et par l’ampleur, on y retrouve presque toujours cette alternance de voix qui fait que le badinage marotique n’est jamais un soliloque, mais un dialogisme, au sens où il inclut l’auditeur ou le lecteur dans un jeu sans cesse repris de questions et de réponses. (13, Gallimard).

Because of the personal connection with his reader, many of his poems reflect Marot’s relationships with certain people. Though he may seem at first to be somewhat prone to name-dropping (as Vanessa pointed out Ronsard is fond of doing), it becomes clearer and clearer that Marot is a bit more genuine. Certainly, he does a fair share of buttering up his audience as a Court poet (see Rondeau XXII, À la louange de la Duchesse d’Alençon), but he seems to be able to understand that this was simply part of his job. The bulk of his work reveals a humble spirit, genuine heart, and sharp mind that simply wants to have a word with « Peuples et Rois », no strings attached (See « Clément Marot, à son livre »).

Marot and Rhetoric

In order to maintain this strikingly intimate connection with his reader, Marot was (like many of his contemporaries) indebted to his study of rhetoric to create and develop an argument in his poetry. Michael Hawcroft’s excellent book, Rhetorical Readings in Renaisssance Literature, includes a much-needed guide for the 21st century student of the forgotten study of rhetoric (see handout, esp p. 20-21).

Marot’s use of rhetoric is most evident in his longer pieces (L’Enfer, and the Élégies), but since we are examining L’adolescence clémentine, let’s try to apply these ideas (albeit in abridged form) to a shorter piece. Let’s take Rondeau XXV, D’un se complaignant de Fortune.

-Exordium

-Proposition

-Narration

-Digression

-Confirmation

-Refutation

-Peroration

Marot and Rime

Marot is well-noted for his seemingly encyclopediac mastery of rhyme. His work abounds with rime riche, plays on words, and other evidence of a thorough vocabulary and a unique ‘take’ on sound and sense. One excellent example is Epître VI, Petite Epitre au Roi. (Also, see handout on Fundamentals of French Versification)

Similarly to Ronsard, Marot also was quite well-versed (ha ha) in complicated rhyme schemes. His Ballade XI, Au Jour du Noël, has been called acrobatic in its rhyme scheme, because it tackles the limited field of rhyme words in French known as rauque sounds, and brilliantly forms them into a elaborate ballade with an ABABBCCDCD rhyme pattern.

Marot : The Old along with the New

As mentioned earlier, Marot seems to have humbler aims than many of his contemporaries, which seem to be genuine and not just a ironic self-effacement (as in the case of du Bellay, for example). This simplicity often extends into his style as well, and his chansons are perhaps best showcase this. See Chanson X, for example.

In addition, Marot’s work (particularly the chansons) are strongly influenced by an understanding of courtly love augmented by the poetic and ideological trends of his own time. Take the Chanson Première, for example. The themes include many courtly love favourites, but they are put in contrastwith one another in what is evidently Petrarchan-like opposition. (See also the use of Anadiplosis and Polyptoton.)