Some biographical highlights
 Cl�ment Marot was born in Cahors
(probably in 1496 and perhaps on 23rd of November (because the patron saint of
that day is Clemens)); he died in Turin on 12 September 1544 and was
buried in the crypt of the Turin Cathedral.
LIFE
Son of the court poet
Jean Marot Cl�ment tried to follow in the footsteps of his father. Although he
always refers to his place of birth (Cl�ment Marot de Cahors en Quercy),
he probably did not live there very long. Already in
1518 (just over 20 years young) he succeeded in getting a post as secretaire at
the
 court of Marguerite of Navarre, sister of Francis I, King of France.
This court was a center of culture and in the 1520s
became the hotbed of ecclesial reform. She corresponded intensely with the Bishop of
Meaux, who in his diocese was organizing one of the most promising experiments
of church renewal (Meaux = just north of Paris). She was the sponsor and
certainly the protector, if not background coordinator. Her personal scholar,
the par of Erasmus, Lef�vre d'Etaples, supervised the experiment. Next
to this
she was quite a learned woman and a gifted poet
(and posthumous: storyteller and playwright). Marot's
religious inspired poetry, like his first Psalm
versification and simple prayers in French have their natural habitat in her
sphere. His first Psalm (nr. 6) was added to
a reprint of Marguerite's Miroir de l`�me p�cheresse, 1533) and
the prayers appeared in a closely annexed pamphlet about the reform of orthography.
In 1527 Marot had become valet de chambre du roi
(court poet, a honorary function) and his fame increased. All
of Paris was familiar with him through some of his poems
that circulated and occasionally were printed. A huge success he scored with his
chansons, published by Attaingnant. In 1534 he
had to leave the country because of the Affaire des placards: fierce
broadsheets against the 'popish Mass' were hung everywhere in and around Paris
and anyone suspected of sympathies for "Lutheranism", as it is then called, was
in acute danger. After finding shelter in Navarre (with... Marguerite, now
married to king of Navarre) he traveled to Ferrara,
where the half-sister of the king, Ren�e de France, held court, not only entertaining the
French in Italy, but at the same time actively stimulating intellectual, moral
and ecclesial renewal. After two years of exile Marot could only return to
France because he publicly abjured his 'errors' and explicitly confirmed his
allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church (December 1536, in Lyon). He was restored to his
position and became the greatest poet of his time. From then on he
kept silent about his innermost convictions. But his name stayed connected
to the Reform movement, his Psalm versifications circulated in manuscript,
and became associated with Calvinism ever since John Calvin used 13 of them in
his first Hymnbook (Strasbourg, 1539). In 1542 a new wave of prosecutions made
him decide to leave France. He departed for Geneva this time, where he was well
received by Calvin, who actively supported him while he was expanding his
versification of the Psalter. Marot left the city late 1543, wanting to return
to France. He died on 12 September 1544, at the age of 47, in Turin where the
French troops had their headquarters.
At his death, an
epigram was carved out in marble and placed in the Turin Cathedral, where it was
removed thirty years later on the explicit command of the Bishop of Turin.
WORKS
As was normal procedure in those days poems circulated in manuscript, and only
poems made for special occasions were printed. The texts of his songs (chansons)
appeared in music editions (music Claudin de Sermisy, Clement Janequin, both
court musicians; editor:
Pierre Attaingnant. Precisely
because of the enormous popularity Marot felt compelled to publish an anthology of
his poems, both to differentiate between authentic and unauthentic texts and to
provide correct (or improved) versions. He named this anthology: "Cl�ment's
youth", Adolescence Clementine (1532, preface 1530). In
this compilation he gathered the harvest of his first 30 years as a poet. Many old art forms (ballads, rondeaux) are present, but
also new types can be found such as the chanson (new as an art-form).
Also characteristic is the presence of translations (or imitations,
re-creations) of the classical poets (Virgil, Horace, Ovid). Here Humanist
influence can be surmised. Marot
proved to be well versed in epistolary art, giving this classical form a very
personal touch. Famous
is his �pistre au roy pour le delivrer du Prison (1527) and his au roy
pour avoir �t� derobe (1532). During his exile he perfected this art form,
with as a summit of his ability the �pistre au roy, du temps de son exil � Ferrare (1535), in which he begs to be allowed to return from exile. Before
he had to flee he had published
La Suite de l'Adolescence Clementine,
in which he brought together more poetry from his first period. Also
a
series of translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses appeared in print around the same
time, as always 'dedicated to the King'. When Marot returned from exile he
published a new version of his Works (also suppressing some of the more
religiously risky poetry) in 1538, Oeuvres. Marot is often regarded as
the poet who concluded the Middle Ages (Rhetoriqueurs) and ushered in a new era:
the French Renaissance. In
later years he specialized in
epigrams - like Martial -. While still in
exile, he reinvented the old genre of the blason challenging his fellow
poets to describe a (small) part of the female body in the most charming way.
His own Blason du beau Tetin was the example to follow. The combination
of craftsmanship in writing and a witty mind made him the 'prince of the French
poets of his days', loved and admired by many, feared by others.
As
a satirist
he finished off his arch-enemy Sagon with the l'�pitre de Frippelippes
(1537). His
contemporary poems in which the text of the Hebrew psalms was reformulated in
16th century strophic form, made him a name in scholarly and religious circles.
He translated ap�s la v�rit� Hebraicque, i.e. based on the original
language (albeit via translations). This
in itself purely Humanist idea (ad fontes, back to the sources) applied to the
poetry of the Psalter became an unexpected hit in evangelical circles. The
poems, initially made for private use (the Court), circulated in Reform oriented circles. In
1539 John Calvin gathered a good dozen of them and he had them set to music
(melody) together with some of his own (and
others?) exercises. This
publication (Aulcuns Psaulmes, Strasbourg 1539) was the beginning of the
habit of singing psalms in the reformed liturgy. In
1541 Marot himself published a first collection (Trente Psaumes) and in
1543 the definitive collection: Cinquante Psaumes (Geneva/Paris). In
Geneva, Lausanne and Lyon composers could not wait to compose music (either like
a motet, or like a chanson) to these texts. The Cinquante Psaumes (49 Psalms and
the Canticle of Simeon) plus some other texts became the core of the Huguenot
Psalter.
APPRECIATION
The new generation of French
poets around the middle of the 16th century (the young wolves of the
Pl�iade like Ronsard, De Ba�f etc.)) dismissed Marot'ss poetry as old-fashioned,
mainly - of course - to promote themselves as the alternative. This
criticism gave Marots poetry a bad name for centuries. Only in the late 20th
century a revaluation of the Prince des Po�tes fran�aises took place. He is
now considered to be the first Renaissance poet in French literature and - based
on his preference for translations - also as a Humanist who wanted to offer the
texts of classical and biblical antiquity to the modern reader in his mother's
tongue.
a table with a
chronology of Marot's life, works and main events (in Dutch)
References
Edition:
Cl�ment Marot, Oeuvres Po�tiques, two volumes, Ed. G. Defaux,
Classiques Garnier, 1990/1993
Biography:
C.A. Mayer,
Cl�ment Marot, Paris 1972 (the introduction of the abovementioned edition can be
used as an update and in some parts a counter-balance) |
