La Belle Cordière, questioned courtier;
whom legends regale, and spin quite a tale,
so vibrant was she that others would pale;
if they dared compare, 'twas wholly unfair.
It's said angels wept for want of her face;
an archer and a horsewoman divine,
dressed as a man, yet a woman defined,
la belle Amazone; so fierce, full of grace.
Though fought for Dauphin at sieged Perpignan,
the whispers, "Courtesan," drew her one flaw;
a poetess of exquisite finesse.
Louise Labè, our lady of Lyon;
as rumor is recused, dub her noblesse,
most noted as the Muse of her salon.
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Author Notes
Artwork: Louise Labe' (1524-1566) Engraving by Pierre Woeiriot (1532-1596) (detail), 1555
In my quest for Quaterns I chanced to make the acquaintance of a French Poetess whom I'd never met before. I'd like to introduce you to her. Consider this poem over 400 years in the making, as she died more than 400 years before I was born. Perhaps, I should have saved this selection for April 25th, as that is the anniversary of her death. Louise Labe', (c. 1524, Lyon - 25 April 1566, Parcieux). I hope you enjoy the story of this lady of Lyon who I felt was nearly as dynamic as Joan of Arc, and thus, a tribute I have written. I hope that the editor doesn't have too much difficulty with the French punctuation marks.
Kim
https://davidandalicepark.wordpress.com/home-2/poetry/the-sonnets-of-louise-labe/sonnet-vi/
Sonnet VI
By Louise Labe'
(As translated by Alice Park)
Twice blessed, the bright return of this clear star,
My well-loved sun, makes glad my days and nights,
And she, who captivates by mirrored light,
Shines down in milk-white splendor from afar.
O sister moon! I watch and wait for you,
When twilight turns toward dark-blue skies above.
It's then I feel that all my ardent love
Has come to bring me joy when you're in view.
While Earth and other planets one by one,
Go swirling round and round my mighty sun,
I'm awestruck by the beauty of deep night.
And when at last my sun has washed away
The eastern sky with streaks of rosy light,
My lover's smiles will match this bright new day.
Biography (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Louise Labe' was born into a family of ropemakers, surgeons, and butchers. Her father, Pierre Charly, was a successful ropemaker, who started a business on rue de l'Arbre sec, at the base of Saint Se'bastien Hill in Lyon. When his first wife died in 1515, he married Etiennette Roybet, and had five children: Barthe'lemy, Francois, Mathieu, Claudine, and Louise. It is presumed that Louise Labe' was born at some point between her father's wedding in 1516 and her mother's death in 1523.
Records show that Labe's father, despite his humble beginnings, eventually achieved some social prestige. For example, in 1534, he was summoned before the Assemble'e de Consuls of the city of Lyon to approve and participate in the founding of a relief agency for the poor.
At some point, perhaps in a convent school, Labe' received an education in foreign languages (Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish) and music, specifically the lute.
As a young woman, she was acclaimed as an extraordinary horsewoman and archer. Her early biographers called her "la belle Amazone" and report that she dressed in male clothing and fought as a knight on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin (afterwards Henry II) at the siege of Perpignan. She was also said to have participated in tournament jousts performed in Lyon in honor of Henry II's visit.
Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, also a Lyon ropemaker, a marriage dictated in her father's will, and which established the succession of the rope manufacturing business he was involved in. The business must have been prosperous, since the couple purchased a townhouse with a large garden in 1551, and, in 1557, a country estate at Parcieux-en-Dombes near Lyon.
Lyon was the cultural centre of France in the first half of the sixteenth century[1] and Labe' hosted a literary salon that included many of the renowned Lyonnais poets and humanists, including Maurice Sce've, Clement Marot, Claude de Taillemont, Pontus de Tyard, and Pernette du Guillet.
The poet Olivier de Magny, passing through Lyon on his way to Rome, fell in love with Labe', and is the likely subject of her love sonnets. Magny's Odes contained a poem (A Sire Aymon) that mocked and belittled Labe's husband (who had died by 1557).
Perhaps inspired by the posthumous publication of Pernette du Guillet's collection of love poems in 1545, Lab�???�??�?�© began writing her own poetry. On March 13, 1555, Labe' received from Henry II a privile'ge protecting her exclusive right to publish her works for a period of 5 years. Her Euvres 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 honour, authored by her male contemporaries and entitled Escriz de divers poetes, a la louenge de Louize Labe Lionnoize ("Writings of diverse poets, in praise of Louise Labe' of Lyons"). The authors of these praise poems (not all of whom can be reliably identified) include Maurice Sce've, Pontus de Tyard, Claude de Taillemont, Cle'ment Marot, Olivier de Magny, Jean-Antoine de Baif, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Antoine du Moulin, and Antoine Fumee. Her contemporaries compare her to Sappho and hail Labe' as the Tenth Muse.
Debate on whether Labe' was or was not a courtesan began in the sixteenth century, and has continued up to the present day. In 1557 a popular song on the scandalous behavior of La Cordie're was published in Lyon. In 1560 Jean Calvin referred to her cross-dressing and called her a plebeia meretrix or common whore. Scholars deliberate carefully over what status to accord to such statements published in a piece of religious propaganda by a writer whose tone has been described as vicious and hysterical, and similarly question to what extent the historian Paradin, writing in 1573, was aiming at neutral objectivity in writing "She had a face more angelic than human, which was yet nothing in comparison with her spirit which was so chaste, so virtuous, so poetic and of such uncommon knowledge that it would seem to have been created by God so that we may wonder at it as something prodigious."
In 1564, the plague broke out in Lyon, taking the lives of some of Labe's friends. In 1565, suffering herself from bad health, she retired to the home of her companion 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.
Debates on whether or not she was a courtesan and other aspects of her life have not always been of interest to critics who have focused increasing attention on her writings, especially her verse.
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