Le Lais (Masterplots, Definitive Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: François de Montcorbier
- First Published: 1456
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Genres: Satire, Poetry, Parody
- Subjects: France or French people, Paris, Wills, Wit or humor, Fifteenth century
Critical Evaluation:
François Villon’s LAIS (the “Little Testament” of early editors) is a youthful poem of bequests, ironic, equivocal, made to a very mixed group of acquaintances and enemies, whom the poet singled out for high-spirited mockery, sarcasm, insulting “gauloiserie” and spiteful attack because of their hostility or uncharitableness towards him. Each bequest fits its recipient’s position in society, or his weaknesses, or his treatment of the “povre Villon.” The difficulties of such a poem, written for the poet and his intimate friends, are...
[The entire page is 2132 words long]
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