De la mélancolie et son expression stylistique dans quelques Chansons spirituelles de Marguerite de Navarre

This article examines melancholia and its stylistic rendering in three of Marguerite de Navarre’s Chansons spirituelles that do not deal with bereavement, namely Songs 29, 45, especially 34. The Queen uses various medical, philosophical, literary sources to describe melancholy, although she never quotes Aristotle or humoral medicine. same applies borrowings from the Imitation Christ, which enable her give a willful Christian response life’s sufferings. Most all, spiritualises love motifs used by Petrarch his Canzoniere, dolce pena concetto. is achieved thanks interpenetration Petrarch’s amorous vocabulary inner life discourse characters’ souls, tossed between euphoria suffering, their quest for divine love. study also reviews Marguerite’s use La Coche, la Comédie des quatre femmes l’Heptaméron, where it remains realm worldly concerns raises moral ethical questions.