Chartier, Alain

Alain Chartier was born in Bayeux ; He attended lectures at the University of Paris , where he drew general attention to his talent (his brothers also achieved success: Guillaume became bishop of Paris ^[1] , Tom became royal notary).

King Charles VI took him to the service of the Dauphin . Between 1423 and 1426 he is given various diplomatic missions, among other things, to the emperor Sigismund , at whose court he delivers a speech ad Hussitas . In 1427 , Chartier was sent by King Charles VII to Scotland to negotiate a wedding for the Dauphin (later Louis XI ) with Margarita of Scotland . Further circumstances of his life are unknown. In some diplomatic documents he is called the Chancellor of Bayeux. In one of the manuscripts of his dialogue, The Four-Parted Invective, he is called docteur en décrets .

Chartier wrote in Latin and French, in prose and poetry. From the Latin works of Chartier are known:

• " Dialogus super deploratione Gallicae calamitatis "
• " De detestatione belle gallici et suasione pacis "
• " Invectiva contra ingratum amicum "
• Ad Universitatem Parisiensem et al.

The Latin letter about Joan of Arc is attributed to him.

Chartier’s French writings have come to us in many manuscripts, but many of the writings attributed to him in these manuscripts do not actually belong to him, but are written by lesser-known poets, such as Oton de Granson, Michaut Taillevent, Baudet, Harenc, etc., on as already indicated by Clément Marot . This is due to the enormous popularity that Chartier enjoyed throughout the 15th and early 16th centuries. The main works of Chartier:

• “Four-voiced inivective” ( Quadrilogue invectif , 1422 ), a long dialogue in prose framed by a dream , where interlocutors are abstract figures: France, chivalry, people and the church, and where the idea of ​​the need for everyone to unite in the name of the common cause of the salvation of France is held
• “ Curial ”, a message to his brother, which depicts in vivid colors the life of the courtyard, the venality and depravity of the court (this essay is translated into English by Caxton )
• “ Traité de l'espérance ou consolation des trois vertus Foy, Espérance et Charité ”, a long essay in prose and poetry that discusses various issues of morality, politics and philosophy; Chartier fervently attacks abuses of clergymen and preaches a reform of the morals of the clergy, among other things, stands for the marriage of clerics
• “ Le livre des quatre dames ”, a poem in 3,600 verses (written around 1416 ), the content of which is that 4 ladies discuss which of them is unhappier: one of her friends is killed in the Battle of Agincourt , the other is taken captured, in the third - missing, in the fourth - fled from the battlefield; the conclusion is that the last one is more unhappy
• “ La belle dame sans merci ” (“Merciless Beauty”, 1424 ), a poem whose plot is that a young man in vain solicits a lady’s love and, not having achieved her “mercy”, dies in despair. It is written in a “square” form - stanzas of eight eight-syllable verses. The poem was intended for the “Love Court”, founded in 1400 by Pierre de Otville ; however, there she was perceived as a little book affecting the honor of the ladies. This poem was most successful and caused many imitations and polemical compositions. The poem was then translated into English and Catalan. Since many lovers complained to Chartier that with his poem he even hardened the hearts of the ladies, he wrote a poem “ Excusation ” in response to reproaches. The name Belle dame sans merci was used by John Keats for his poem. The same name is one of the characters in the Laurel Hamilton cycle about Anita Blake.
• " Le débat des deux fortunés d'amour, ou le débat du gras et da maigre "
• " Le débat de reveillematin "
• " Le lay de paixe "
• Le bréviaire d'amour (which inspired the imitation of Michaut Paillevent , who wrote Le Psautier des villains ), which listed the virtues and qualities of a truly noble man.

In addition, Chartier wrote many rondos , ballads , le and regrets and is considered the inventor of the form rondeau déclinatif . Almost all contemporary French poets obeyed the influence of Chartier as a poet. Chartier is one of the first French writers who want to give a literary finish to his works, taking care of the beauty of the presentation and the harmony of the phrase, he tries to arrange his periods according to the rules of rhetoric, choosing Seneca as his model. He is not limited to one statement of facts, but tries to give them an explanation; He also likes to quote ancient authors, of which he knows Seneca, Cicero , Virgil well . All these features make it possible to see in Chartier one of the predecessors of the Renaissance in France.

• Chartier, Alain // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.