Alain Chartier

Alain Chartier was a French poet, diplomat and political writer.

Life Alain Chartier was born in Bayeux to a family marked by considerable ability. His eldest brother Guillaume became bishop of Paris; and Thomas Chartier became notary to the king. Jean Chartier, a monk of St Denis, whose history of Charles VII is printed in vol. III. of Les Grands Chroniques de Saint-Denis (1477), is also said to have been a brother of the poet. Alain studied, as his elder brother had done, at the University of Paris. He then went to work for the Duke Louis and Yolande of Anjou, whose daughter Marie was engaged to the youngest son of Charles VI. He followed the fortunes of the dauphin, afterwards Charles VII, acting in the triple capacity of clerk, notary, and financial secretary. He appears to have taken holy orders and was named canon of Paris, rector of the parish of Saint-Lambert-des-Levées, and even Archbishop of Paris. He died in Avignon in 1430; the reason for his presence there remains a mystery. An epitaph for his tomb was commissioned by his brother Guillaume Chartier, but the stone has not survived.

Literary career

Alain's earliest poems were likely the Lai de Plaisance (Lay of Pleasure) followed by the Débat des Deux Fortunés en Amours (Debate of the Two Lovers) also called the Débat du Gras et du Maigre (Debate of the Fat and the Thin). The Livre des Quatre Dames (1416) was written after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In 1422 he wrote the famous Quadrilogue invectif. The interlocutors in this dialogue are an allegorical representation of France and the three orders of the state, the Clergy, Knight, and People. Chartier lays bare the abuses of the feudal army and the sufferings of the peasants. He maintains that the cause of France, though desperate to all appearance, was not yet lost if the contending factions could lay aside their differences in the face of the common enemy. In 1429 he wrote the Livre de l'Espérance, which contains a fierce attack on the nobility and clergy. He was the author of a diatribe on the courtiers of Charles VII, entitled Le Curial, translated into English by William Caxton about 1484.

Works

Works in Latin Discours au roi (Charles VI) sur les libertés de l'Église (1412?) Epistula ad fratrem suum juvenem Francigenæ magni, gens fortis et inclita bello... Lettre à l'Université de Paris (probably around 1419) Premier discours de la mission d'Allemagne Second discours de la mission d'Allemagne Discours au roi d'Écosse (1428) Persuasio ad Pragenses de fide deviantes Ad detestationem belli Gallici et suasionem pacis (1423) Dialogus familiaris Amici et Sodalis super deplorationem Gallicæ calamitatis (approximately 1427) Invectiva ad ingratum amicum Invectiva ad invidum et detractorem Tractatus de vita curiali Lettre sur Jeanne d'Arc (1429)

Works in French Le Débat des deux fortunés d'amour (Le Débat du gras et du maigre, approximately 1412/1414) Le Lay de plaisance (approximately 1412/1414) Le Livre des quatre dames (1416) Le Quadrilogue invectif (Livre des trois estaz nommé Quadrilogue, 1422) Le Bréviaire des nobles (approximately between 1422 and 1426) Le Débat de réveille matin de deux amoureux (1423?) La Complainte contre la mort de sa dame (1424) La Belle Dame sans mercy (1424) L'Excusation (1425) Le Lay de paix (approximately between 1424 and 1426) Le Débat du hérault, du vassault et du villain (or Le Débat patriotique, between 1422 and 1425) Le Livre de l'Espérance (or Consolation des trois vertus, 1429)