The Menippus Satyr (1594)

The Menippean Satire is a French collective political poetic-prosaic pamphlet of several authors, poets and scholars of the XVI century against the League . The reason for its creation was the convening of the States General on January 26, 1593 ( États généraux de 1593 ) by the Duke of Mayenne, head of the forces hostile to Henry IV , to elect a Catholic king. The work was completed in 1593 and was secretly distributed for some time in handwritten form; in 1594 it was printed by Jamet Mettayer .

The name of satire comes from Just Lipsia’s poetic and prose work inspired by Varron, the author of “Saturæ Menippeæ,” from the Renaissance, preserved only in fragments, highly praised by scholars and bureaucrats who studied the art of antique work. " Menipp " was the name of a cynic, famous for his ridicule. According to legend, the purpose of the creation of the work was to “return lost minds to the path of truth and common sense.”

“Menipova satire” ridicules - in the form of testimony written by the authors of satires by the ligists - the claims of the leaders of the League, their hypocrisy, a mixture of hypocrisy, cowardice and perfidy of their monks who have become warriors. It is a prose and verse excerpts written in different languages; it contains some of the best poems of the end of the sixteenth century. Her political influence on the unbiased part of the nation was very great: she sort of cleared the way for Henry IV.

The authors of the Menippets satire: poets and scholars Gilles Durant de la Bergerie , Jean Passerat and Florent Chrestien , Member of Parliament Jacques Guillot, legal adviser Pierre Piet , canon Pierre le Roy ) and Protova the constable Nicola Rapen .