Romance Notes

Abstract:

This article seeks to answer a specific question: Were there ever any women among the so-called grands rhétoriqueurs of the early sixteenth century in France and Burgundy—any grandes rhétoriqueuses? Usually only men are classed among this group of poets, but if women are to be included, then surely one must begin by considering the little-known poetry of Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and the aunt and guardian of the future Emperor Charles V. Indeed, a careful examination of Margaret's poems demonstrates that her meter, style, emphasis on the infinity of suffering, and insistence on the act of writing as an arbiter of immortality all point to the common topoi of rhétoriqueur poetry in early Renaissance France and Burgundy. Margaret's active collaboration with court poets, furthermore, which influenced their poetic production as well as her own, also suggests that Margaret of Austria indeed falls within the parameters delineating the poetry of the so-called grands rhétoriqueurs.