Ludus et ironie dans Le Livre des Cent Ballades
Ludus and irony in The Book of One Hundred Ballads

Author(s): Maria Helena Marques Antunes
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Middle Ages, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: Livre des Cent Ballades; competition; courtly ideal; debate; irony; poetic ludus;
Summary/Abstract: The Livre des Cent Ballades, a poem dating from the end of the 14th century, is a collective text elaborated by four knight-poets - Jean le Sénéchal, Boucicaut, Philippe d'Artois and Jean de Crésecque - even if one admits that Sénéchal was the main author. The playful nature of the Livre des Cent Ballades, and especially the answers given to the question asked, is conducive to irony. Indeed, several poems reveal that the exercise was considered a pleasant literary entertainment. The structure of the poems is also ironic. Enjambements, highlighting a word or an expression, allow to introduce a disruptive note. Similarly, the introduction of a refrain that contradicts the assertion of submission to the lady is part of this ironic movement, reflecting the rejection of a courtly ideal deemed out of date. The thirteen answers are representative of the competitive and social nature of court poetry. Thus, the poets who took part in this challenge had to be ingenious. In this sense, irony, which requires the mastery of rhetorical codes and relies on subtlety, is characteristic of the poetic ludus.

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