Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies. Vol 1

by Pierre de Bourdeille Brantôme

—Paris, 1876, Renouard, libraire de la Société de l’histoire de France. “Œuvres complètes de Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, publiées d’après les manuscrits, avec variantes et fragments inédits, pour la Société de l’histoire de France, par Ludovic Lalanne. Tome neuvième. Des Dames” (suite). Un gros vol. in-8 de 743 pages, titre non compris.

Cette édition est la première qui indique les sources auxquelles Brantôme a puisé ses historiettes. M. Lalanne n’a laissé aucun passage sans une explication toujours courte et toujours substantielle.

—L’Œuvre du Seigneur de Brantôme. “Vie des Dames galantes.” Introduction and notes by B. de Villeneuve. Paris, 1913.

—Les Dames galantes. Publiées d’apres les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, par Henri Bouchot. 2 vols. E. Flammarion. Paris. (A very fine edition.)

—Brantôme: Das Leben der Galanten Damen. (Dionysos-Bücherei). Introduction by George Harsdörfer. 2 vols. Berlin. (The best German edition.)

—Brantôme: Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies. Translated from the original by A. R. Allinson. 2 vols. Paris. Carrington. 1902.

APPENDIX—A

BRANTÔME: By Arthur Tilley

Like Montaigne, Brantôme pretended to be careless of literary fame, but in reality took every pains to secure it; like Montaigne he loved digressions, gaillardes escapades, from his main theme; like Montaigne he has drawn for us, though in his case unconsciously, a portrait of himself; like Montaigne he was curious of information, fond of travel and books. But these points of similarity are after all superficial; the difference is fundamental. While Montaigne tested the world and society by the light of his shrewd common sense, Brantôme accepted them without question or reflexion. Montaigne was essentially a thinker, Brantôme was merely a reporter; Montaigne was a moralist, for Brantôme the word morality had no meaning. Montaigne criticised his age, Brantôme reflected it. That indeed is Brantôme’s chief value, that he reflects his age like a mirror, but it must be added that he reflects chiefly its more trivial, not to say its more scandalous side. He is the Suetonius of the French Renaissance.