Clement Marot

Biography

Like writes it Frank Lestringant, “It is necessary to take guard not to cash take for money all the biographical data present in work. It can be a question of a narrative fiction assembled of all parts”.

Origin

Clément Marot is born in Cahors, of a Gascon mother and a father originating in Caen, Jean of Marets known as Marot. This Jean of Marets was merchant, but, with the end of the year 1505 it was revoked by its corporation. It left then the area of the Quercy and started to write worms. As these worms rained with Michelle de Saubonne, woman of the lord of Soubise, it was introduced to the queen Anne of Brittany. It was well accepted and became one of the favorite poets of Louis XII, which it accompanied in Italy.

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It placed his Clément son, who had been schoolboy with Paris, like page at Nicolas de Neufville, lord of Villeroy, in the house of which the young man remained little. Very quickly the young Clement Marot also composed him of the worms.

Marguerite de Valois

As of 1513, it passed in the capacity as manservant to the service of Marguerite de Valois, duchess of Alençon, sister of François Ier. This monarch, knowing how much she liked poetry, made him present Marot by the lord of Pothon. If it is necessary to believe of it the last editor of its works, Nicolas Lenglet-Dufresnoy, the poet dared to aspire to the favors Diane of Poitiers and even of Marguerite de Valois, and a connection lends to him that several writers, inter alia Laharpe, do not question. But nothing is proven less; and the abbot Claude-Pierre Goujet ensures that these loves are of pure fabrication. Marot, indeed, had the greatest difficulties of being made register on the state of the house of the princess, so much so that he complains some in his eighth ballade.

François Ier

At all events of this connection, the poet followed François Ier to Rheims and Ardres in 1520, and the Duc of Alençon to the camp of Attigny, where this prince, in 1521, was with the head of the French Army.

It translates Virgile and Lucien. As of 1515, it offers to new king, François Ier, a collection entitled, the Temple of Cupido, made by Maistre Clément Marot, factor of Royne . In 1517 or 1518, it addresses to the King a Petite Espitre .

In 1521, it was with the army of the Hainaut that François Ier ordered in person; and one sees it in 1525 with the Bataille of Pavia, where it was wounded with the arm and captive fact.

The prison

Moreover greater misfortunes awaited it in France; it had returned there, counting perhaps a little too on the protection of the court, where its talent, the courtesy in its manners and joviality of its conversation had put it in credit. Marot, Libertine of spirit and heart, little reserved in its remarks and openly frondant the ecclesiastical observances, gave taken to its enemies. One showed it to be imbu new opinions. It is stopped, shown heresy and conduit in the prisons of the Châtelet where it was locked up in 1525. It protested in vain, in its Epitre with the inquisitor Bouchard, who he was neither Luther IEN, neither Zuingli in, nor Anabaptiste.

After the death of the duke of Alençon in 1525, one reported that he is avenged for a loved woman, certain Isabeau, by publishing Élégie Iere with a Lady . This one pricked of the indiscretion of his/her lover or his satires, would be avenged in its turn and would denounce it to have eaten bacon during the Lent. But the denouncement put at the account of a woman, Luna or Ysabeau, concerns the most traditional satire misogynist and points out once again Villon (F. Lestringant). A similar tale seems not very believable. It however appears that it was a lady which denounced it, if one judges some by these worms, where it told itself its adventure. Vainly he of the purity of his faith, and claimed protested the advantage of its Masters and its guards. The only grace which it obtained was to be transferred in 1526 from the prisons of Châtelet in those of Chartres, less obscure and healthier than those of Paris; the visits of the most considerable people of the city softened a little the troubles of its captivity. It was there that it composed its poem, the Hell , satirical description of Châtelet, and inveighs against the abuses people of justice

It improved there also the Romance of the Rose , in substituent of the sentences known with those which had aged. It can leave prison, thanks to his friend, Lyon Jamet, and with the bishop of Chartres, Louis Guillard. To thank his friend, he writes Epistre with his amy Lion .

Epistle with the king

Its detention had not corrected it. In 1526 - 1527, it éprend of an young girl and writing Dalliance de Grande Amye .

In 1527, being warned to tear off hands of the archers a man whom one carried out in prison, it was put there itself; and he beseeched the protection of François Ier by pretty an epistle Epistre de Marot sent to Roy , which was so accepted, that this prince wrote of his own hand at the court of the assistances to make grant freedom to the prisoner.

In 1532, it publishes Epistre in Roy, by sick Marot estant in Paris . The King is sensitive to such an amount of spirit and grants to Marot which is officially its manservant since 1528, hundred ecus of gold to the sun in favor and consideration of his goods and pleasant services. Hardly the poet started it to breathe, that its feelings on the religion raised against him a new storm. Justice seizes its papers and its books.

Italy

In 1533, it publishes the translation of the Pseaume VI , which it composes after having escaped with the terrible disease which it terrace almost. Following the Business of the wall cupboards in 1534, catholics and Protestants clash violently. François Ier, after having tergiversated much, decides for repression. Clement Marot, prefers to move away from the court.

He ran away himself in Béarn the year 1535, and then at the court of the duchess of Ferrare, Madam Renee de France. But realizing that he was seen evil eye by the duke, he withdrew in 1536 with Venice.

The return in France

It was from there that it obtained its recall in France, then at the court, by the means of a solemn abjuration which it made with Lyon between the hands of the Cardinal of Tournon. it obtains the forgiveness of the King. To thank the King, he writes Epistre in Roy, of the time of his exile with Ferrare .

With these storms an interval of peace due to prudence succeeded that the Italian reserve and the memory of its last disgraces appeared to inspire to him. The publication of its first Psaumes disturbed this peace. In 1541, it publishes Thirty Pseaulmes of David, put in françoys by Clément Marot, then the Fifty Pseaumes . This translation which he undertook, with the request of famous the Vatable, had the greatest vogue at the court. François Ier sang these Psalms with pleasure. Each the lords and lady of the court affectionnait of them one which it adapted to sound better to the light comedies, often burlesques, which were then with the mode. But one can say that here Marot had ignored the kind of its talent; and the judicious people, known as the Goujet abbot, were not long in realizing that he had sung on the same tone the anthems of the king-prophet and the wonders of Alix. Soon the Sorbonne believed to notice errors in this translation and carried complaints from there to the king. François Ier, who loved the poet and who wished the continuation of his work, had little regard, with these remonstrances The faculty of theology did not continue less its complaints and its censures, and ends of them up defending the sale of the work.

Switzerland

In 1542, François Ier makes seek the Lutherans, and although its name is not pronounced, it leaves again in exile and gains Geneva. Victor Palma Cayet claims that it discharged the woman of its host there, and that with the recommendation of Calvin, the capital punishment that it had incurred was commuted to that of the whip. This charge appears libelous; indeed, how, after such an adventure, he would have dared to present himself, as it made, in front of those which ordered in Piedmont for the king? It is possible that the license of its manners, which could not be tolerated in a city like Geneva, gave place to this abusive noise.

In 1543, it settles with Chambéry, then gains Turin where it dies in indigence in 1544, always occupied the new ones towards and of new loves, and leaving for only sons Michel Marot. Jodelle made him this epitaph in the taste of its century:

Querci, the Court, Piedmont, the Universe,

did, to Me held me, buried me, knew me;

Querci, my los, the court all my time had,

Piedmont my bones, and the universe my worms.

The character

Marot had the spirit enjoué and full with projections under the serious outside of a philosopher. He united, which often arrives, a sharp head with a good heart. Endowed with a noble character, it appears to have been free from this low jealousy which tarnished the glory of more than one famous writer. It had of quarrel only with François de Sagon and Charles of Hueterie, which attacked it while it was with Ferrare. The first was enough impudent to request the place of Marot, but not enough favoured to obtain it. The second was compensated for the displeasure to see ceasing the disgrace of the poet by a pun which gives the measurement of its spirit: Marot had put some much in an epistle in Lyon Jamet, where he told the sorrows of his exile and where he compared himself with the rat liberator of the lion. Huéterie seized the application that Marot was made this Apologue, and believed very pleasant to call it the Rat shovel (recalled). Marot answered him only under the name of its servant for better testifying his contempt to him.

Poetry

The name of Marot, known as Laharpe, is the first really remarkable time in the history of our poetry, much more by the talent which is particular for him, that by progress that it made make with our versification. This talent is infinitely higher than all that preceded it, and even than all that followed it until Malherbe. Nature had given him what one does not acquire: it had endowed it with grace. Its style has really charm and this charm is due to a naivety of turning and expression which joint with the delicacy of the ideas and feelings: nobody knew better than him, even nowadays, the tone which is appropriate for the epigram, is that which we thus properly call, which is that took since the name of madrigal, while applying to the love and the galantery. Nobody better knew the rate/rhythm of the worms to five feet, and the true tone of the epistolary kind, with which this species of worms sied so well. Its masterpiece in this kind is the epistle where he tells in François Ier how he was stolen by his servant; it is a model of narration, smoothness and good joke. This regard for poetries of Marot triumphed over the time and the vicissitudes of the language.

Boileau said in the beautiful days of the century of Louis XIV: Imitate of Marot the elegant banter. the Fountain proved that it was full with its reading. II hardly, there the Heather said, between Marot and us that the difference in some words. Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, which addresses an epistle to him, fact glory of looking it like its Master. Clément defended it against Voltaire, which stuck to the décrier in his last works, probably by hatred for Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, culprit, according to him, to have given the dangerous example of the style marotic, that it is easier to imitate than the talent of Marot.

But, known as still Laharpe, it was necessary that the naive turning of this poëte was quite tempting, since one borrowed his language for a long time out-of-date to try to resemble to him.

Its work

Varied poet, more serious than one imagines it, but unable to put up itself with the austerity of a Calvin, it still takes part of the medieval tradition. The work of Marot is very abundant and “the elegant banter” with which Boileau associates it in its Poetic Art is only one aspect. One notices, by reading his Works as the poet evolved of the discipline of the Rhetoriqueurs, to a very personal art which brings it closer to the Humanisme.

Adolescence clementine (1532-1538) includes/understands the poems of youth. They are characterized by the variety of the forms and the tackled subjects:

the first Eclogue of Bucoliques de Virgile (translation)
the Temple of Cupido (inspired of the " Temple of Vénus" of Jean Lemaire of Belgians)
the Judgment of Minos (inspired of the Latin translation of the " Dialog of the morts" of Lucien de Samosate)
" Sad worms of Philippe Béroalde " (translation of the " lugubrious Carmen of die dominicae passionis " of Philippe Béroalde)
contemplative Speech in front of the Crucifix (translation of the " Ennea AD sospitalem Christum " of Nicolas Barthelemy of Loaches)
Epistles : 10 parts (11 if one counts the Epistle of Maguelonne'). This epistle of Maguelonne concerns the héroïde.

Laments

Epitaphs : short form, the epitaph can comprise only two worms. At the beginning of the section the tone is serious, then the smile makes its appearance.

Ballades : they include/understand half about thirty worms divided into three stanzas and, a refrain of worms and a sending-dedication. The Ballade plays on three or four rhymes. The poem ends in a half-stanza, addressed to the Prince (or with the Princess).

Rondos : who include/understand from 12 to 15 worms, characterized by the return of half-towards initial to the medium and the end of the poem.

Songs : The song is favourable with all acrobatics of the rhyme.

These last three kinds were practiced by the Rhétorique the USSR.

The organization of Adolescence clementine watch that Marot composes a work and that the collection is not the fruit of épanchement spontaneous. The chronology is not respected there. Marot operates modifications. Thus the " V" ballade; change recipient into 1538. Gerard Defaux points out that Marot built his life in the collection, as a novelist composes a novel. Marot likes to register its name in its poems: it represents readily in the poem " the scripturaire" activity;. Its taste carries it towards the short kinds.

Old editions

The best editions of Poetries of Marot are:

that of Niort, 1596, in-16; rare and required;

that of Elzévir, 2 vol. in-16;

that which with appeared with $the Hague in 1731 in 4 vol. in-4°, and in 6 vol. in-12 (see: Nicolas Lenglet Of Fresnoy). This edition, most complete of all hitherto, is disfigured by a multitude of misprints, and by a vicious punctuation, etc the editor, disguised under the name of Gordon de Percel, joined there sometimes curious notes, rather often not very important and in which it is hardly shown more decent than his author.

that of P. - R. Auguis, Paris, 1823, 5 vol. in-12, neglected enough edition and which is hardly higher than the preceding one;

that of Mr. Paul Lacroix, Paris, 1824, 3 vol. in-8°, increased by a Test on the life and the works of Cl. Marot, of historical and critical notes and a glossary . One followed in this edition, which is more correct than the preceding ones, the text of that of 1554 and the orthography of that of 1545.

We will still quote selected Œuvres of Cl. Marot, accompanied by historical and literary notes by Mr. Després and preceded by a Test on Cl. Marot and on the services which it rendered to the language by Mr. Campenon, Paris, in-8°. In addition to the works indicated, one can still consult a letter of Claude François of Verdier of Sorinière, in the Mercure de France , June 1740; the historical Table of the French literary men , by Mr. T…, Paris, 1785, in-8°; the literary Anecdotes , etc (see: Guillaume-Thomas Raynal).

It should not be forgotten that it is in Marot which one owes a correct edition of the Poésies of Villon. It was François Ier who gave the responsability it to collect them.

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