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| Page updated 9 Jan. 2012 |
MHRA Critical Texts Vol. 14
ISBN 978-0-947623-77-7
1 October 2010
Pbk £9.99 / $15.99 / €11.99
Google Ebook
This satirical poem, known popularly as the Miliade because of its thousand-verse length was printed anonymously around 1636. It was subsequently reprinted several times under varying titles, knowing fresh success from 1649 to 1652 when it was reissued as a pseudo-Mazarinade. This is an important work since Tallemant des Réaux tells us that Richelieu was particularly incensed by it and had at least five authors imprisoned on suspicion of having authored it (including the prominent comic dramatist Charles de Beys). Tallemant also mentions that its popularity was widespread, detailing that readers had to peruse illicit copies behind closed doors. The poem's endurance and plentiful and specific political references - battles are detailed, ministers, writers and other figures are directly or indirectly alluded to - make it a lively commentary encompassing discontent with the increasingly centralized government before the outbreak of the civil wars, the Frondes (1648-53).
This volume provides an accessible edition with scholarly apparatus based on the first printing, with variants from later printings and manuscripts listed as footnotes. The annotated marginal comments of Tallemant des Réaux to his own copy of the manuscript of the poem are provided, this being the first time they have been published. The editor also evaluates the contenders for authorship and, based on both internal stylistic evidence as well as contemporary clues, reaches a decisive conclusion as to the authorship, date of appearance, and place of publication, unravelling a literary mystery that Richelieu himself, with his wide intelligence network, was never able to resolve.
Paul Scott is assistant professor in the Department of French & Italian at the University of
Kansas.
"Paul Scott’s edition is both meticulous and erudite ... [the] astute analysis of the political and literary significance
of the poem will be of broad interest to scholars who work on the political and cultural history of early modern France."
Peter Shoemaker, MLR, 107 (2012), 618-20.
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