The Trial of Womankind: A Rhyming Translation of Book IV of the Fifteenth-Century Le Champion Des Dames

ISBN-13: 9780786422401 / Angielski / Miękka / 2005 / 232 str.

Martin Le Franc; Steven Millen Taylor

Opis

Medieval literature makes it plain that the Battle of the Sexes has been alive and raging since at least the Middle Ages. As depicted by Martin Le Franc in Le Champion des Dames, this battle takes on literally epic proportions. Translated from the original Middle French by Steven Millen Taylor, the fourth book of Le Franc's poem comes to life for the modern English reader as The Trial of Womankind. This allegorical poem from the mid-fifteenth century offers a dynamic dialogue between both sides of the Querelle des Femmes, the ?debate over women.? In rhyming octaves, Le Franc constructs an allegorical courtroom where two attorneys named Free Will and Slow Wit argue, respectively, the cases for and against women. Calling upon classical and contemporary examples from the Nine Muses and the Queen of Sheba to the Popess Joan and Joan of Arc, the attorneys tell a lively story while making plain the political, religious, and social issues of the time.