Louise Labé’s Followers (20)

Louise Labé

Born

Lyon, France

Died

April 05, 1566

Genre

Poetry

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The precise date of Louise Labé's birth is unknown. She is born somewhere between 1516 (her parents marriage) and 1523 (her mother's death).
Both her father and her stepmother Antoinette Taillard (whom Pierre Charly married following Etiennette Roybet's death in 1523) were illiterate, but Labé received an education in Latin, Italian and music, perhaps in a convent school.
At the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, she is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.
Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, a ropemaker.
She became active in a circle of Lyonnais poets and humanists grouped around the figure of Maurice Scève. Her Œuvres were printed in 1555, by t The precise date of Louise Labé's birth is unknown. She is born somewhere between 1516 (her parents marriage) and 1523 (her mother's death).
Both her father and her stepmother Antoinette Taillard (whom Pierre Charly married following Etiennette Roybet's death in 1523) were illiterate, but Labé received an education in Latin, Italian and music, perhaps in a convent school.
At the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, she is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.
Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, a ropemaker.
She became active in a circle of Lyonnais poets and humanists grouped around the figure of Maurice Scève. Her Œuvres were printed in 1555, by the renowned Lyonnais printer Jean de Tournes.
In addition to her own writings, the volume contained twenty-four poems in her honor, authored by her male contemporaries and entitled Escriz de divers poetes, a la louenge de Louize Labe Lionnoize.
The authors of these praise poems (not all of whom can be reliably identified) include Maurice Scève, Pontus de Tyard, Claude de Taillemont, Clement Marot, Olivier de Magny, Jean-Antoine de Baif, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Antoine du Moulin, and Antoine Fumee.
The poet Olivier de Magny, in his Odes of 1559, praised Labé (along with several other women) as his beloved; and from the nineteenth century onward, literary critics speculated that Magny was in fact Labé's lover. However, the male beloved in Labé's poetry is never identified by name, and may well represent a poetic fiction rather than a historical person.
Magny's Odes also contained a poem (A Sire Aymon) that mocked and belittled Labé's husband (who had died by 1557), and by extension Labé herself.
In 1564, the plague broke out in Lyon, taking the lives of some of Labé's friends. In 1565, suffering herself from bad health, she retired to the home of her friend Thomas Fortin, a banker from Florence, who witnessed her will (a document that is extant).
She died in 1566, and was buried on her country property close to Parcieux-en-Dombes, outside Lyon.
[edit:]Debated connection with "la Belle Cordière"
From 1584, the name of Louise Labé became associated with a courtesan called "la Belle Cordière" (first described by Philibert de Vienne in 1547; the association with Labé was solidified by Antoine Du Verdier in 1585).
This courtesan was a colorful and controversial figure during her own lifetime. In 1557 a popular song on the scandalous behavior of La Cordière was published in Lyon, and 1560 Jean Calvin referred to her cross-dressing and called her a plebeia meretrix or common whore.
Debate on whether or not Labé was or was not a courtesan began in the sixteenth century, and has continued up to the present day. However, in recent decades, critics have focused increasing attention on her literary works.
Her Œuvres include two prose works: a feminist preface, urging women to write, that is dedicated to a young noblewoman of Lyon, Clemence de Bourges; and a dramatic allegory in prose entitled Debat de Folie et d'Amour, which draws on Erasmus' Praise of Folly.
Her poetry consists of three elegies in the style of the Heroides of Ovid, and twenty-four sonnets that draw on the traditions of Neoplatonism and Petrarchism.
The Debat, the most popular of her works in the sixteenth century, inspired one of the fables of Jean de la Fontaine and was translated into English by Robert Greene in 1584.
The sonnets, remarkable for their frank eroticism, have been her most famous works following the early modern period, and were translated into German by Rainer Maria Rilke. ...more

Combine Editions
Louise Labé’s books

Average rating: 3.47 · 1,004 ratings · 128 reviews · 91 distinct works • Similar authors

	Œuvres complètes: Sonnets, Elegies, Débat de folie et d'amour 3.29 avg rating — 282 ratings — published 1566 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Œuvres Poétiques de Louise Labé et Rymes de Pernette du Guillet by Louise Labé, Pernette du Guillet 3.37 avg rating — 139 ratings — published 1983 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love Sonnets and Elegies by Louise Labé, Richard Sieburth (Translator), Karin Lessing (Preface) 4.02 avg rating — 95 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Œuvres by Louise Labé, Michele Clement (Editor), Michel Jourde (Editor) 3.30 avg rating — 94 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sonnets of Louise Labé by Louise Labé, Alta Lind Cook (Translator) 3.63 avg rating — 72 ratings — published 1556 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition by Louise Labé, Deborah Lesko Baker (Translator), Annie Finch (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 4.27 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 2006 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sonetos y elegías by Louise Labé, Aurora Luque Ortiz (Translator) 3.81 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1555	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Poésies 2.70 avg rating — 33 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Debat de Folie Et D'Amour 3.40 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 1995 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	« Je vis, je meurs » et autres poèmes (Sonnets & Élégies de Louise Labé): suivi d'un parcours sur la poésie amoureuse au féminin 2.76 avg rating — 21 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Louise Labé (?)

“Since a time has come, Mademoiselle, when the severe laws of men no longer prevent women from applying themselves to the sciences and other disciplines, it seems to me that those of us who can should use this long-craved freedom to study and to let men see how greatly they wronged us when depriving us of its honor and advantages. And if any woman becomes so proficient as to be able to write down her thoughts, let her do so and not despise the honor, but rather flaunt it instead of fine clothes, necklaces, and rings. For these may be considered ours only by use, whereas the honor of being educated is ours entirely. ”
― Louise Labé

tags: education, feminism, learn, power, troubador

67 likes

“Sonnet VIII

Je vis, je meurs : je me brûle et me noie,
J’ai chaud extrême en endurant froidure ;
La vie m’est et trop molle et trop dure,
J’ai grands ennuis entremêlés de joie.

Tout en un coup je ris et je larmoie,
Et en plaisir maint grief tourment j’endure,
Mon bien s’en va, et à jamais il dure,
Tout en un coup je sèche et je verdoie.

Ainsi Amour inconstamment me mène
Et, quand je pense avoir plus de douleur,
Sans y penser je me trouve hors de peine.

Puis, quand je crois ma joie être certaine,
Et être en haut de mon désiré heur,
Il me remet en mon premier malheur.”
― Louise Labé, Œuvres complètes: Sonnets, Elegies, Débat de folie et d'amour

tags: love, poems, sonnets

5 likes

“Baise m'encor, rebaise-moi et baise

Baise m'encor, rebaise-moi et baise ;
Donne m'en un de tes plus savoureux,
Donne m'en un de tes plus amoureux :
Je t'en rendrai quatre plus chauds que braise.

Las ! te plains-tu ? Çà, que ce mal j'apaise,
En t'en donnant dix autres doucereux.
Ainsi, mêlant nos baisers tant heureux,
Jouissons-nous l'un de l'autre à notre aise.

Lors double vie à chacun en suivra.
Chacun en soi et son ami vivra.
Permets m'Amour penser quelque folie :

Toujours suis mal, vivant discrètement,
Et ne me puis donner contentement
Si hors de moi ne fais quelque saillie.”
― Louise Labé, Œuvres complètes: Sonnets, Elegies, Débat de folie et d'amour

tags: love, poems, sonnets

1 likes

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Louise Labé’s Followers (20)

Louise Labé

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