What do you think?
Rate this book
Sonnets
English, French (translation)
107 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1556
1 person is currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Louise Labé
91 books21 followersThe 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 24, 2021
Twee zeer verschillende, doch evenwaardige en hoogstaande vertalingen (door Paul Claes enerzijds en Piet Thomas anderzijds) van deze uitmuntende poëzie!
August 19, 2016
Louise Labé was a French poet from the 1500’s, known as “La Belle Cordière” (the beautiful wife of a rope maker). I wish I could read French, but I read the translations of these short sonnets on this website, which is a lovely story in itself:
https://davidandalicepark.wordpress.com/
I enjoyed them all, but my favorite was Sonnet X(https://davidandalicepark.wordpress.c...), that ends with a very touching metaphor.
https://davidandalicepark.wordpress.com/
I enjoyed them all, but my favorite was Sonnet X(https://davidandalicepark.wordpress.c...), that ends with a very touching metaphor.
May 18, 2025
andere uitgave van m’n favoriete dichtbundel! Deze keer met vertalingen, fantastisch 🤝🏼🤝🏼🤝🏼
February 24, 2024
Ik versta niks
May 1, 2024
Read in French - women are just better.
September 24, 2022
3/5 étoiles
*lu pour l'université*
Une exploration du désirs au féminin
« Et si jamais ma pauvre âme amoureuse
Ne doit avoir de bien en vérité
Faites au moins qu'elle en ait en mensonge. » (sonnet IX)
*lu pour l'université*
Une exploration du désirs au féminin
« Et si jamais ma pauvre âme amoureuse
Ne doit avoir de bien en vérité
Faites au moins qu'elle en ait en mensonge. » (sonnet IX)
May 21, 2021
lecture prepa, intérêt modéré
February 21, 2023
De beaux poèmes. Écriture et langage parfois ancien mais néanmoins compréhensible.
February 3, 2024
My favorite is Sonnet 18. The first time a poet ever made me blush, it was like she injected me with her own feelings and forced me to feel them. I love her for it.
April 16, 2024
Sonnets 1-24
March 15, 2025
yeah she can write.
May 18, 2023
The sonnets are short, nevertheless when read in old French some nuances and figures of speech may be hard to grasp.
It is interesting how Labé's Sonnets on love still echo today.
It is interesting how Labé's Sonnets on love still echo today.
Read
October 14, 2025O long felt desires, O hopes uncertain,
sad sighs, and these customary tears
engendering in me so many rivers,
of which my eyes are source and fountain:
O cruelty, O harshness so inhuman
piteous gaze of those furthest of stars:
O first passion, gone from my heart,
do you seek to increase my pain again?
where are you then, my beloved soul, I sigh
do not leave me spiritless to roam
he being one who scorns both gods and men
yield it a place, grant it a valued home
sad sighs, and these customary tears
engendering in me so many rivers,
of which my eyes are source and fountain:
O cruelty, O harshness so inhuman
piteous gaze of those furthest of stars:
O first passion, gone from my heart,
do you seek to increase my pain again?
where are you then, my beloved soul, I sigh
do not leave me spiritless to roam
he being one who scorns both gods and men
yield it a place, grant it a valued home
October 3, 2009
More satisfying than reading Sceve, unless one enjoys closed, difficult poetry more than direct, expressive poems.
Read
January 7, 2013841.3 L116s 1972
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews