Alain Chartier: The Quarrel of the Belle dame sans mercy

FAIN: FT-51608-03

Joan E. McRae
Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden-Sydney, VA 23901-5657)

The project concerns the production of an edition and facing English translation of the texts of the enigmatic 15th century Quarrel of the Belle dame sans mercy, to be published by Routledge in fall 2003. The Quarrel is comprised of a series of poems written in response to Alain Chartier’s provocative love debate poem, The Beautiful Lady with No Mercy. The poetic polemic that ensued was created by poets of the royal and judicial courts over the age old question of love, discussion of which was complicated by Chartier’s thematic juxtaposition of man’s love against woman’s rights. The Quarrel’s examination of the question proves a major contribution in the assertion of women’s rights against the prevailing misogyny of the Middle Ages.

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