|
|
Article: Inescapable Rose: Jean le Seneschal's 'Cent Ballades' and the art of cheerful paradox.
- Article from:
- Medium Aevum
- Article date:
- March 22, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The Societe des Anciens Textes Francais brought out an elegant, meticulous edition of Jean le Seneschal's Livre des cent ballades in 1905:(1) the response has been, very largely, a resounding silence. At best, the collection is referred to, briefly, as charmant,(2) but Italo Siciliano for one was exasperated -- a hundred ballades? sheer wanton self-indulgence!(3) Burgeoning interest in the lyric recueil has -- marginally -- revived their stock,(4) and even from time to time promoted them from footnote to topic, as in the only major article so far devoted to them, by Jacqueline Cerquiglini.(5) But in general, even critics sympathetic to late-medieval French lyric(6) have ...