Marguerite de Navarre, Marguerite de Navarre's Devotional Poetry

Jeff Kendrick (Virginia Military Institute)

Ed. by Robert J. Hudson, Brigham Young University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.02: French Writing and Culture in the Renaissance, 1400-1600.
Vol. editors: Robert J. Hudson (Brigham Young University), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), Phillip John Usher (New York University), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1521 - 1549

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Poetry (any)
Religion and Spirituality (any)
- Religious writing

Resources

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Marguerite de Navarre was most well-known during her lifetime as a poet and a playwright. This article will describe some major themes that run through her devotional poetry and will provide an overview of some of her most important works. I am including the Queen’s

Chansons spirituelles

as part of Marguerite’s poetic output, following the sixteenth-century classification of these songs as poetry. I also refer my reader to several good references at the end of this article and acknowledge the debt I owe to them, especially, to Robert Cottrell’s

The Grammar of Silence

(1986) which is foundational for any study of Marguerite’s poems.

Much of Marguerite’s poetic output can be characterized as conflictual and apprehensive. The poems struggle against themselves, and the speakers are

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Citation: Kendrick, Jeff. "Marguerite de Navarre's Devotional Poetry". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 September 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38871, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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