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Updated 05-13-09
Louise Labe (1520/22-1566)
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"THE TIME HAS NOW COME, MADEMOISELLE."
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Louise Labe was born in the early 1520s to a prosperous rope-maker, a member of the Lyon bourgeoisie. Her mother died when Labe was a child; her father had her educated in languages as well as in music, and she tells us that she also learned to ride and fence. She was married in her early 20s to another rope-maker, some 30 years older than she. It was apparently after her marriage that she began to participate in the literary circles of Lyon, which at the time challenged Paris as a cosmopolitan center and which allowed the bourgeoisie greater participation in cultural life than did the capital.
In 1555 Euvres de Louize Labe Lionnoize was published in Lyon: it contained a prose dedicatory epistle to a local noblewoman, a prose Debat de Folie et d'Amour, 24 sonnets (the first in Italian), and three elegies; the work concluded with 24 poems by other writers, praising Labe's ability. The book was popular enough that three other editions came out within a year (the first "revues et corrigees par la dite Dame"), and it was widely-read enough to bring both praise from beyond Lyon and criticism for being immodest and "unwomanly."
Sometime after 1556, Labe apparently left Lyon to live in the countryside. Her husband died in the early 1560s and she died, perhaps of the plague, in 1566.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. In English:
(a) At #20 in this collection of excerpts, the dedicatory letter to Clemence de Bourges, translated by Jeanne Prinne.
(b) Links to each of the 24 sonnets, translated by Alice Park.
(c) Links to 25 sonnets, the 24 certainly Labe's and one ("Sonnet de la belle cordiere") that has been attributed to her. The translations are by Peter Low; the French is also given (for Sonnet #1, you will need to link to another page for the Italian original). You can also link to an introduction by Low which describes his method of translation.
(d) Use your browser's search function to go to the second use of "Louise" for links to eleven poems: the three elegies and two sonnets (# 14 & 24), translated by Timothy Ades; five sonnets (# 18, 4, 2, 8, 3), translated by James Kirkup; and one (# 9), translated by Harry Guest.
(e) Links to nine sonnets (# 1 ,8, 11, 14, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24) in English ("An"); for #8 and #18, alternative translations are given. (You can also link to translations into other languages and to all of the works in French.)
(f) Links to five poems: (Sonnets # 2, 13, 18, and 24, and Elegy # 3), translated by Annie Finch; the French originals are also given. Elsewhere, Finch's version of Sonnet # 3, "Long-felt desires, hopes as long as vain."
(g) In a 2006 discussion of Labe's authorship of the works attributed to her (see # 4e, below), translations of Sonnets 18 and 19 by Graham Dunstan Martin and by Finch.
(h) After an essay by Thomas D. Le on the same subject, Labe's historical reality, Le's version of three sonnets (# 8, 14, 18).
(i) Go to "Louise" for Eli Siegel's version of Sonnet 8, "I live, I die; I am intense and I drown."
(j) Sonnet 9, "From the moment I welcome to my bed," translated by Richard Price.
2. In French:
(a) At a French site, links to all of the Euvres: for each of the sonnets, a facsimile of the page and both the original and modern French; for the dedicatory letter, Debat de Folie et d'Amour, and the elegies, the text from the 1556 edition (and notes indicating the changes from 1555). You can also link to three sonnets that have been attributed to Labe, to her 1565 "Testament," to a timeline ("Vie de Louise Labe"), to a bibliography of editions and of studies through 2007, and to other relevant material.
(b) Again the second elegy, but here clicking on highlighted words and phrases will bring you their English translation.
(c) The title page and eight other pages of the "revised and corrected" 1556 Euvres de Louize Labe Lionnoize. (And from the same site, the opening of the entry on Labe in Antoine du Verdier's 1584 Bibliotheque, which began the tradition that she was a courtisane, yet worthy of being read).
3. At the bottom of the page, a 1555 portrait of Labe by Pierre Waeiriot; at the top, the title page of the 1555 edition of Euvres.
4. Essays, etc.:
(a) "Louise Labe: Poet of Merit or 'Plebeia Meretrix'? An Inquiry into the Biographical and Critical Assessments of a Sixteenth-Century French Woman Writer," an illustrated essay by Yvonne Finnegan, details what is known of Labe's life and describes the reception of her work over the centuries (at the bottom of the page, you can link to a translation of Sonnet 8 by John Jamieson).
(b) "The Gendering of the Lute in Sixteenth-Century French Love Poetry" (2000), by Carla Zecher, compares the use of lute imagery in poems by men and women, including Labe (about one-third of the way down the page); Zecher provides her own translation of Sonnet #s 12 and 14, with the originals given in the notes.
(c) "Women of the French Renaissance in Search of Literary Community" (1993), by Kirk D. Read, discusses Louise Labe's attempt to create from the women of Lyon a textual community. Read speaks of other writers as well; for Labe, go to "Louise."
(d) An English-language review by Colette H. Winn of Francois Rigolot's 1997 study, Louise Labe Lyonnaise ou la Renaissance au feminin, on Labe's relation to her city and her use of myth.
(e) An English-language review by Anne-Marie Bourbon of Mireille Huchon's 2006 study, Louise Labe: une creature de papier; Huchon sees Labe and her works as fictions created by the Lyonnais poet Maurice Sceve and others.
5. Other reviews (for excerpts from the translation, see "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Labe, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Leah Chang on Deborah Lesko Baker's and Annie Finch's 2006 edition and translation of Labe's Complete Poetry and Prose; elsewhere, another review, this by Cathleen M. Bauschatz.
(b) Anne-Marie Bourbon on the 2004 essay collection, Louise Labe 2005; and another review, by Gabriella Scarlatta Eschrich
(c) Bourbon on Lesko Baker's 1996 study, The Subject of Desire: Petrarchan Poetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labe.
(d) Patricia Phillippy on Julie D. Campbell's 2006 study, Literary Circles and Gender in Early Modern Europe: A Cross-cultural Approach; and another review, by Lissa Beauchamp Desroches.
(e) Phillippy on Janet Levarie Smarr's 2005 study, Joining the Conversation: Dialogues by Renaissance Women; and, starting on p.2, another review, by Reinier Leushuis.
(f) Keith Cameron on the 2002 collection, Distant Voices Still Heard: Contemporary Readings of French Renaissance Literature.
(g) Valerie Worth-Stylianou on Cathy M. Yandell's 2000 study, Carpe Corpus: Time and Gender in Early Modern France.
6. At a French site, a bibliography of editions and studies, through 2007.
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[In the latest collection of Labe's works, Deborah Lesko Baker has translated the prose, Annie Finch the poetry, with the original French given on facing pages. Except for a brief "poetry translator's note" by Finch, the useful introductions and notes are by Lesko Baker. The bibliographies identifiy critical studies in English and in French, and the index is detailed. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Labe, Louise. Complete poetry and prose: a bilingual edition;
edited with critical introductions and prose translations by
Deborah Lesko Baker and poetry translations by Annie Finch (The
other voice in early modern Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, c2006. (xxxi, 274 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ1628.L2 A23 2006; ISBN: 0226467147, 0226467155
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-260) and index
Dedicatory Letter
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"...to show men how wrong they were."
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[The opening of the letter to "M.C.D.B.L.," Mademoiselle Clemence de Bourges, Lionnoize, a young noblewoman:]
Since the time has now come, Mademoiselle, when men's harsh laws no longer prevent women from applying themselves to study and learning, it seems to me that those who have the means should take advantage of this well-deserved freedom --- so fervently desired by our sex in the past --- to pursue them, and to show men how wrong they were to deprive us of the benefit and recognitionthese things might have given us. [p. 43]
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"...nothing more than a worthwhile pastime."
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[Despite the reference above to "recognition," near the end of the letter, Labe makes the customary denial of any desire to be published:]
As for me, both when I first wrote these youthful works, and when I had occasion to look them over again more recently, I was seeking nothing more than a worthwhile pastime and a way to keep from being idle. I never meant for anyone else to see them. [p. 25]
Debat de Folie et d'Amour
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"...gloomy, humorless people, completely lacking in refinement."
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[The Debat tells of the result of a violent quarrel between Love and Folly in which Love was blinded. When Venus goes to Jupiter seeking justice for her son, the chief god agrees to listen to the case and have the other gods judge it. Apollo is assigned to represent Love and Mercury to speak for Folly. The trial consists of one long speech by each of the two advocates; Apollo speaks first. In order to show the seriousness of the injury if Love cannot do his work, Apollo describes those people who live without love:]
...[T]hese are gloomy, humorless people, completely lacking in refinement when they speak. They have gruff voices, distracted gaits, scowling faces, and downcast eyes. They are suspicious, stingy, ruthless, ignorant, and disdainful of everyone --- in short, like werewolves.... It's more distasteful to look at these people than it is to drink a soup without salt.
What do you think of them? If all men were like this, it wouldn't be much fun living with them, would it? [pp. 81-83]
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"The greatest pleasure there is, after love, is talking
about it."
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[Apollo then goes on to describe Love's contributions:]
What better eases the fatigue of a traveler after his long journey than singing some love song, or listening to his companion recount some story or adventure about love? One man praises the kindness of his beloved; another laments the cruelty of his.... In short, the greatest pleasure there is, after love, is talking about it.... And thus even the sternest men enjoy hearing people talk about such things, even if they don't care to admit it.
Who is the one responsible for creating so many poets, in so many languages, throughout the world? Isn't it Love? This seems to be the subject on which all poets wish to speak. And what makes me attribute poetry to Love, or to say, at least, that poetry is promoted and nourished through his skill? It's that from the very minute men fall in love, they start writing verses. [pp. 87-89]
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"...there will be ten thousand fools who are popular with
the people."
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[When his turn to speak comes, Mercury describes Folly's long and honored role in human history, then illustrates by comparing the lives of a wise man and a fool:]
But to sum it up in a few words: show me a totally wise man on the one hand, and one guided by Folly on the other, and then observe carefully which one will be regarded more highly.
The wise gentleman will wait for someone to seek him out, but will be left all alone with his wisdom. No one will call on him to govern cities, or even to ask for advice. He'll be more than happy to listen, to go at a deliberate pace wherever he's summoned. Yet the world needs individuals who are swift and ready to act, who would sooner make a mistake than dawdle along on their path. The wise man will have all the time in the world to retire to the country and plant cabbages.
The fool, for his part, will come and go so often, making so much happen without any particular rhyme or reason, that he'll eventually meet up with a mind like his own who will goad him on, and he'll come to be considered a great man. The fool will put himself in the line of fire of ten thousand gunshots and will still possibly escape unscathed --- and for this he'll be admired, acclaimed, prized, and followed by everyone. He'll devise some outrageous scheme, for which, if he pulls it off, he'll be praised to high heaven.
You will thus find it true, in sum, that for every wise man who is talked about in the world, there will be ten thousand fools who are popular with the people. [p.105]
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"They take pen and lute in hand, and they write and sing
about their passions."
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[And after describing the folly of men in love, Mercury moves on to women:]
Might you think that women are more sensible when they fall in love? Even the coldest of them would sooner let their insides burn up than admit anything. And no matter how much they might like to beg, if they dared, they simply allow themselves to be adored, and always refuse what they'd be more than willing to have taken from them by force. Others are just waiting for the right opportunity, and lucky is the man who can take advantage of it....
Only with time do the most noble hearts consent to being conquered.... But once they've gone this far, they get into some clever mischief. The more they've resisted love, the more they're caught up in it.
They close the door to reason. They're no longer afraid of everything they used to have misgivings about. They neglect their womanly tasks. Instead of spinning, sewing, and working at needlepoint, they put all their efforts into getting dressed up and going around to churches, parties, and banquets, so that they keep running into the ones they love. They take pen and lute in hand, and they write and sing about their passions. [pp. 119-21]
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"Lovers... would never last a a single hour longer."
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[As Mercury nears his conclusion, he speaks directly to Love, who has been blinded by Folly:]
Love, it's so far from the truth that you should be without Folly, you'd be well advised not to ask for your eyes back. They won't do you any good, and they could do you a great deal of harm....
Do you believe that a soldier going into battle stops to think about the ditch, the enemies, and all the gunfire that awaits him? No, he has no other goal that to reach the front of the line, and he doesn't give a thought to the rest....
Think of it as being the same for lovers. If ever they came to see and understand clearly the peril they are in, how much they are deceived and misled. and the nature of the hope that makes them continually carry on, they would never last a a single hour longer.
And then, Love, your reign would be over, because it survives only be virtue of ignorance, distraction, hope, and blindness, which are all handmaidens of Folly and keep her company every day. [pp. 127-29]
[The gods are so impressed with the rhetoric of the two speakers that they cannot come to a decision, so Jupiter postpones his judgment for 19,000 years.]
Elegies
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"Love will always conquer."
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[From the first elegy, to Labe's women readers:]
....Oh, Women who read these words,
Come sigh with me, for the sorrows you have heard!
And maybe one day I'll do the same for you,
helping your pitiful voices to sound more true
as you tell about your pain and your sad trial,
lamenting in vain for times gone this long while.
Whatever hardness lodges in your heart,
Love will always conquer it through his special art,
and the more you have made him your enemy,
the worse he'll act when you are at his mercy. [p.155]
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"Blame Love."
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[And the opening of the third elegy , to the "Dames Lionnoises":]
Oh, women of Lyon, whenever you read
these writings of mine, so full of love and need---
all the worries, grudges, tears, sobs, and regret
that the piteous music of these songs has set---
please don't condemn me for simplicity
because of my youthful weakness. If it be
that I'm in error, who, under the skies,
can praise herself for not having one vice?...
So, if there's anything imperfect in my life,
blame Love. He is the cause of all my strife.
in my green youth he got a hold of me,
while I was exercising both my body and soul
in a hundred thousand ingenious feats of skill
which, in no time at all, he rendered dull. [p.167]
Sonnets
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"We'll each have two loving lives to tend."
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[Labe's sonnets use Petrarchan convention, but always with a twist. In Sonnet 18, the ideal is union, not love from afar:]
Kiss me again, rekiss me, and then kiss
me again, with your richest, most succulent
kiss; then adore me with another kiss, meant
to steam out fourfold the very hottest hiss
from my love-hot coals. Do I hear you moaning? This
is my plan to soothe you: ten more kisses, sent
just for your pleasure. Then, both sweetly bent
on love, we'll enter joy through doubleness,
and we'll each have two loving lives to tend:
one in our single self, one in our friend.
I'll tell you something honest now, my love:
it's very bad for me to live apart.
There's no way I can have a happy heart
without some place outside myself to move. [p.207]
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"Which nature best feels love's warm palpitation?"
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[In Sonnet 21, she reverses the traditional male praise of the female form and skill:]
Which height makes a man earn the most admiration?
Which weight? Which hair? What color of skin and face?
Which eyes brim fullest with the honeyed grace
that spurs the most incurable sensation?
What song brings a man's voice the highest glorification,
its sadness penetrating the deepest place?
On whose voice doe a lute leave the sweetest trace?
Which nature best feels love's warm palpitation?
I wouldn't want to claim that I know best,
since Love forces my judgment; nevertheless,
I do know one thing well---yes, I'm quite sure
that all the beauty I could choose to explore,
and all the art that might improve on Nature,
would never increase my desire one bit more. [p.213]
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[Althoug based on an older edition of Labe's works, Edith Farrell's translation is still of value; the book's chief disadvantage is that it does not provide the original French. The introduction by C. Frederick Farrell and Edith Farrell discusses Labe's life and work, and the notes are helpful:]
Louise Labe's complete works / translated and edited by Edith
R. Farrell; with an introduction by C. Frederick Farrell, Jr.
and Edith R. Farrell. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston Pub. Co., 1986. (145
p.)
LC#: PQ1628.L2 A25 1986; ISBN: 0878753192
Bibliography: p. [140]-145.
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[Deborah Lesko Baker's 1996 study discusses all of Labe's works in greater detail than is done in her introductions to the 2006 translation (above):]
Baker, Deborah Lesko. The subject of desire: Petrarchan poetics
and the female voice in Louise Labe; with a foreword by Tom Conley
(Purdue studies in Romance literatures; v. 11). West Lafayette,
Ind.: Purdue University Press, c1996. (xvi, 249p)
LC#: PQ1628.L2 B35 1996; ISBN: 1557530882
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-242) and index.
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[In Julie D. Campbell's study, one chapter, "Louise Labe, l'Imparfaicte Amye," deals with Labe's participation in the ongoing literary quarrel about the nature of women. Campbell describes how Labe was seen by the male writers of Lyon and then analyzes Debat de Folie et d'Amour to show Labe's response. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Campbell, Julie D. Literary circles and gender in early modern
Europe: a cross-cultural approach (Women and gender in the early
modern world). Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, c2006.
(vii, 221 p.)
LC#: PN731 .C36 2006; ISBN: 0754654672
Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-216) and index
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[One of the two English-language essays in this collection is Christine Clark-Evans' essay (first published in 1994), "The Feminine Exemplum in Writing: Humanist Instruction in Louise Labe's Letter Preface to Clemence de Bourges," which provides a close reading of the last part of Labe's dedicatory letter to show that the work is not merely a defense of women but also an argument for a specific program of humanist study that would benefit both the individual and society. Clark-Evans gives her own translation of quoted passages. Also valuable is the book's detailed bibliography of Labe editions and studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Louise Labe 2005 / etudes reueies par Beatrice Alonso et Eliane
Viennot (Ecole du genre; hors-ser. no.1). Saint-Étienne:
Publications de l'Universite de Saint-Eienne, 2004. (271 p.)
LC#: PQ1628.L2 L68 2004; ISBN: 2862723487
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[Cathy M. Yandell's study includes a substantial section on Labe (pp.111-127). Yandell compares the dedicatory letter and several of the sonnets to similar works by male contemporaries in order to illustrate Labe's treatment of time. The original is given for all of Yandell's translations. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Yandell, Cathy M. Carpe corpus: time and gender in early modern
France. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London : Associated
University Presses, c2000. (281 p.)
LC#: PQ418 .Y36 2000; ISBN: 0874137047
Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-267) and index
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[Mary B. Moore's study includes a chapter on Labe which discusses the relationship of the erotic to the poetic in the elegies and sonnets. Moore gives the original and her own translation of the sonnets she analyzes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Moore, Mary B. Desiring voices: women sonneteers and Petrarchism
(Ad feminam). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
c2000. (xiii, 290 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN1514 .M58 2000; ISBN: 0809323079
Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-282) and index
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[This collection includes an essay by Carla Freccero, "Louise Labe's Feminist Poetics," which analyzes the first and third elegies, which Freccero sees as preparing the reader for the following sonnets by establishing Labe's gendered role. Freccero gives her own translation of quoted passages. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Distant voices still heard: contemporary readings of French
Renaissance literature / editors, John O'Brien and Malcolm Quainton.
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000. (viii, 232 p.)
LC#: PQ231 .D58 2000; ISBN: 0853237859, 0853237956
Text in English and French. Includes bibliographical references
(p. [217]-221) and index
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[One chapter, "Dialogue & Drama," of Janet Levarie Smarr's study of Italian and French writers between 1450 and 1600 includes a discussion of Labe's Debat de Folie et d'Amour. The book's first chapter explains Smarr's conception of "dialogue," and the last looks at the relationship among the writers discussed. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Smarr, Janet Levarie. Joining the conversation: dialogues
by Renaissance women. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
c2005. (312 p.)
LC#: PN1551 .S55 2005; ISBN: 0472114352
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-303) and index
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[Edith Joyce Benkov's article analyzes the Debat and its position in Labe's work:]
Benkov, Edith Joyce. The re-making of love: Louise Labe's
"Debat de Folie et d'Amour." Symposium, 46:2
(Summer 1992), 94-104.
LC#: PB1 .S9; ISSN: 0039-7709
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[Ann Rosalind Jones' study of Renaissance women poets discusses Labe, among others. She translates (and gives the originals) of six of the sonnets and parts of the three elegies:]
Jones, Ann Rosalind. The currency of Eros: women's love lyric
in Europe, 1540-1620 (Women of letters). Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, c1990. (xi, 242 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN1181 .J66 1990; ISBN: 0253331498
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Updated 05ß-13-09
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