Lemaire de Belge, Jean

A student of the historian Jean Moline , his uncle who led the Burgundian school of poets, who called poetry "second rhetoric" and himself "great rhetoric ."

He received an excellent education in Valenciennes , knew several languages. In 1498 he entered the service of the Duke Pierre II de Bourbon , at whose court he was in charge of finances. He served as the librarian of the Regent of the Netherlands Margarita of Austria in Mechelen ^[1] , then as secretary and indicarist , ie, historiographer , at the court of Anna of Breton ^[2] .

Lemaire de Belge was one of the first representatives of French Renaissance poetry.

He began to engage in literary work in 1503, after the death of the Duke de Bourbon. He created several panegyrics in which he described the widow's grief, and praised the deceased. Similar works were created by him on the death of Louis de Luxembourg-Ligne and Philibert II, the Duke of Savoy , whom he served, as well as in memory of Uncle Jean Molin and his predecessor, the Burgundian historian Georges Chatelain . Based on a sample of the works of the latter, he composed the “Chronicle of 1507” ^[3] .

Of great importance in his work was the treatise "Concord of two languages" ("La concorde des deux langages", 1513), in which Lemer de Belge advocates the equality of French and Italian, calls for peace between peoples.

Lemaire de Belge introduced tercina into French poetry by writing his “Temple of Honor and Valor” (Le temple d'honneur et de vertu, 1504). His two “Messages of the Green Lover” (“Epîtres de l'amant vert”, 1505), written for Margarita of Austria, are distinguished by the most originality, ease and poetry. In his works he skillfully used metaphors , antitheses , peripherals , epithets , comparisons .

By carefully choosing expressions, he often created a play on words. His work contains at the same time some elements of humanistic poetry: the inspiration for his works was often antiquity , and at the same time attention to the “spectacular” look and sound of poetry (as confirmation of his poetic competence). Lemaire de Belge tried to use a carefully selected, refined French language.

The prosaic essay “The Glorification of Gaul and the Extraordinary Fates of Troy” (“Les illustrations de Gaule et singularités de Troye”, 1509-1513) tells about the origin of the French from the ancient Trojans . A lively retelling of old myths, confident flexible prose, interspersed with verses, a humanistic orientation - all this made the book popular among contemporaries (published in 16 editions in the 1st half of the 16th century).

The work of the poet was highly appreciated by Clément Marot , Joachen Du Belle and many others.

• History of French Literature, vol. 1, M. - L., 1946, p. 204.

• Lemaire de Belges (Jean). Les Épîtres de l'Amant vert (French)