[In the following essay, Beaulieu argues that in Les Angoysses douloureuses de Crenne employs an often speechless protagonist who is at the same time the erudite and articulate narrator, and in doing so is able to report the limitations imposed on women as well as overcome them.]

The first French novel written by a woman, Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours, composed by Marguerite Briet and published for the first time in 1538 under the nom de plume of Hélisenne de Crenne, displays a potentially interesting textual phenomenon: in the first part of the novel, the narrator and the heroine are identified as one and the same person. In the narrative, Hélisenne places herself both as the speaking persona (le sujet parlant) and the subject matter of writing (l'objet d'écriture), telling in the first person of the unfortunate experiences she had when she became involved in an adulterous relationship. In this early novel often described as autobiographical,¹ the first third of the narrative superimposes two textual identities which have very different verbal characteristics: as a narrator, Hélisenne does prove to be erudite while as a character she is episodically aphasiac, that is, speechless. It is this dissociation narrator/heroine—corresponding to the opposition erudition/aphasia—that will be presented here as the textual transposition of the contradictions experienced by a French woman of the early sixteenth century, as far as access to social expression is concerned. In such a perspective, the contrast between the character's speechlessness and the narrator's mastery of language illustrates the near impossibility for an educated woman of that time to make herself heard on social matters: therefore, the narrator has recourse to writing by way of compensation for an insolvable conflictual situation in the character's vécu. Examination of the text shows that this kind of conflict is repeatedly resolved in such compensatory self-expression.

As a narrator, Hélisenne's purpose is to inform her women readers—the book is indeed dedicated to women—about her personal experience which proves, she claims, that it is preferable to avoid “l'amour sensuel,” source of psychological, marital and social difficulties. In the first part of Les Angoysses, Hélisenne explains the different steps of a personal and dramatic love affair which she presents for the edification of the reader and especially so that the “honnestes Dames” will avoid “toute vaine et impudicque amour.”² During this narrative, Hélisenne shows her considerable erudition, on the one hand, in the many intertextual references and, on the other, in the rhetorical and stylistic devices that she uses.

Intertextuality is the functional dimension through which the text is articulated and characterized in relation to previous texts. This dimension is rather important in the first part of Les Angoysses where the influence of identifiable Italian and French texts is manifest. After having studied the nature and importance of these influences, Paule Demats asserts: “La part de l'imitation dans Les Angoysses apparaît donc considérable […]” (Demats, p. xxiii). The imitation alluded to is La Complainte des tristes amours de Flamette by Boccaccio, Le Pérégrin by Caviceo,³ to which we must add Les Illustrations de Gaule et Singularitez de Troie by Lemaire de Belges, Jehan de Saintré and even Le Roman de la Rose (Demats, p. xx). The influence of these works, however, is felt more on the level of expression than that of the action. For Hélisenne mainly uses mythological examples, images and quotations for the most part from the sources that have just been mentioned, and she borrows very few elements pertaining to their narrative and didactic organization (Demats, p. xxiii). The literal borrowings from the French translations of Boccaccio and Caviceo, respectively published in 1532 and 1527, are numerous. In fact, Demats identified more than 250 quotations of different length coming from the writings of the two Italians, Lemaire de Belges, Ovid and Virgil (Demats, pp. 104-24). This impressive number of borrowings implies the meticulous work of inserting the quoted sentences in the appropriate original contexts. Such a combination of new material and literary influences on the narrative expression level can be interpreted in several ways: one could simply reproach the author for plagiarizing; some others could see a relatively normal phenomenon for that time, although perhaps more pronounced in Hélisenne than in others. However, one could also explain this phenomenon by positing the necessity for the woman narrator, Hélisenne, to make use of pre-existing texts by well-known male writers in order to constitute a text, thus expressing new contents with older, already canonized means. The intertextuality would therefore be the justified product of a démarche scripturaire féminine, the first step of which would be imitation of male texts. Whether this reading or another is adopted is, however, of little significance when we consider the matter of literary borrowings in Hélisenne; one must acknowledge that the latter gives extensive evidence of having read widely and that the intertextual references are cleverly incorporated in her own creation, the articulations of the segments of different origins being not felt in the reading. Hélisenne thus asserts her knowledge of important literary sources and shows her mastery of the writing in her creative manipulation of borrowings.

In her dissertation on the stylistic aspects of the works of Hélisenne/Briet, Diane Wood argues that the stylistic questions in Les Angoysses prevail over the plot movement, that is, that the frequent use of rhetorical devices to embellish the narrative discourse results in interruption of the action.⁴ Although it attaches too much importance to the aesthetic dimension of the link énoncé/énonciation, this comment gives credit to the poetic prose which indeed characterizes Hélisenne's novel and is particularly valid for the first part of the work where the action plays a minor part in the story which is largely given over to the expression and analysis of the character's vécu intime. This interesting and original narrative situation creates a text which we could describe at the same time as realistic, psychological and poetic respectively because of its scenery, its content and its form. As for the latter, there is no doubt that for Hélisenne, the didactic intention at the origin of the narration of her vécu as a character must be achieved by means of an “écriture aornée,” which allies persuasion and beauty. This confusion between poetics and rhetoric is, according to Irene Bergal, typical of the first half of the XVIth century and present in treatises such as Le Grand et vrai art de pleine rhétorique (1521) by Pierre Fabri.⁵ Even though no one can absolutely claim that Marguerite Briet read the rhetorician's manual, “her text does show more than a passing acquaintance with the techniques described in his work” (Bergal, p. 39). From the very first lines of her narrative, Hélisenne uses the device called “interpretation” which consists in amplifying with other terms what could be briefly said:

Au temps que la déesse Cibele despouilla son glacial et gelide habit, et vestit sa verdoyante robbe tapissée de diverses couleurs, je fuz procrée de noblesse, et fuz cause à ma naissance de reduyre en grande joye et lyesse mes plus prochains parens […].

(p. 5)

We can also identify many other rhetorical devices such as “la declamation en apostrophe,” which accentuates the emotional tone of the narration; “la circunlocution,” “c'est quand le terme est deshonnete que l'en ne l'ose nommer,” says Fabri (Bergal, p. 40); “la prosopopea,” when there are speaking objects (Bergal, p. 41); and “la redupplication,” which consists in saying the same thing twice. The following is an example of this technique, one frequently used by Hélisenne: “Combien qu'il soit croyable et concessible, que par enucléer et declarer les Angoisses & douleurs souffertes, elles se peuvent mitiguer et temperer […]” (Bergal, p. 42). The female narrator's stylistic preoccupation thus emphasizes her adherence to the contemporary conception of what was considered artistic writing.

In the past, critics such as Giraud and Jung have considered the presence of the rhetorical devices too intrusive to say that the author of Les Angoysses used them subtly or skilfully.⁶ One might attribute this point of view to a prejudice towards women writers, for male authors of the same period did not hesitate at all in using similar rhetoric ostensibly. Such aesthetic evaluations, which tend to judge the woman more severely than a comparable male writer, are better left unmade. Hélisenne, like others, merely shows her erudition when becoming part of the literary world. Her text turns out to be a lieu de parole féminine where the use of learned language reveals the access by a woman to the knowledge and mastery of writing, means of expression reserved for men. Despite the affected modesty which is part of the Latin rhetorical tradition (Bergal, p. 34), the narrator of Les Angoysses imposes on the reader a vécu—her own—which she expresses with the conviction of truth by means of a studied language.

Most people who have shown interest in Hélisenne/Briet consider the first part of Les Angoysses to be a texte diégétique of an autobiographical nature, which means that the responsibility for the narration is assumed by the same person on two axes, a present one and a past one. The axis of the past is composed by the retrospective reminiscences of the character's (Hélisenne's) marital experiences, while the second axis consists of the presentation of these reminiscences. It is interesting to note that rhetorical amplification is mainly perceptible on the axis of the present.⁷ The conventional pursuit of effect is on the other hand reduced to its simplest expression on the axis of the past, that of the character's vécu. The first part of Les Angoysses is thus characterized by a stylistic discrimination which follows the pattern of the dissociation of raconté/vécu, by contrasting the narrator's rich expressive activity with the heroine's aphasia. When faced with an unsatisfying married life and a compromising love affair, Hélisenne, trapped, becomes episodically aphasiac. In battling with a husband who beats her and a lover who is only trying to take advantage of her, Hélisenne loses the capability of expressing herself and becomes the silent witness of her own drama.

Speechlessness, recurring throughout the first part of Les Angoysses, occurs on the occasions where Hélisenne is in presence of men exercising authority over her: a monk, the representative of morality, to whom she must confess her misdeeds (pp. 59-61), and especially her husband, the representative of the social forces which work to suppress the passionate love that might occur outside of marriage. An example of this phenomenon of aphasia is when Hélisenne, after having been insulted and struck by her husband, has nothing to say in her own defence when she regains consciousness: “Et quand je fuz revenue de pasmoison, toute palle et descoulourée, je commencay à regarder autour de moy sans dire mot; car à l'occasion des griefves et insuperables douleurs interieures, la parole m'estoit forclose […]” (p. 51). The intensity with which she experienced oppression at that moment is felt in the presence of the narrator who is forced to cease writing as she remembers these events. The same pattern happens again, with more or less intensity, a dozen times in the first part of Les Angoysses. It is, with a few exceptions, the husband who is the direct cause of Hélisenne's aphasic troubles. Moreover, the heroine's universe is progressively more and more limited by her husband until she is put into prison, an action which is symbolic of the wife's complete alienation, and which happens at the end of the first third of the novel. Trapped in a world of men whose expectations do not tally with hers, Hélisenne, during her aphasic attacks, indirectly indicates through a negative form of expression the enslavement to the desire of the Other, the Other of which she is the object.

Public life, which is the realm of the Other, offers very little satisfaction and makes Hélisenne withdraw, after every aphasic period, to her room, the place of intimacy where she can gather her forces: “Et tout subit apres […] me retiray en ma chambre où j'estoys plus volontiers seule qu'accompaignée pour plus solitairement continuer en mes fantasieuses pensées. Et, en telle solicitude, je me delectoye à lire les lettres de mon amy.”⁸ In addition, this room is the textual site where the character and the narrator come together. In her room, Hélisenne writes the story of her misadventures, a story which becomes, due to the strange fate explained at the end of the novel, the text that the reader has before her/his very eyes. The latter has therefore the opportunity of seeing Hélisenne write in her room what she/he reads in the novel entitled Les Angoysses. At this precise moment in the text, the heroine and the narrator become one through the act of writing, which is the character's principal means of self-affirmation, since it allows her to reveal indirectly what she is unable to express in her everyday life. The cathartic nature of these moments of writing is brought to the fore in the following extract, where it is suggested that the human being can regain his or her mental stability through the process of literary creation: “Les anxietez et tristesse des miserables, comme je peulx penser et conjecturer, se diminuent quand on les peult declarer à quelque sien amy fidele.”⁹ Psychological relief, as described in this passage and one of the above-mentioned quotations, seems to be one of the essential purposes of the narrative sequences not originally meant to be read, but the content of which comes to be revealed to the reader through the coincidence of the moments of writing of the character and the printed text which constitutes the entire novel.

In connection with this subject, it would seem that, if the axes of the present and the past come to join episodically, it is with the aim of better indicating the difference between the public character's speechlessness and the necessity to express her vécu. Thus it is in this contrast which lies the implicit didactic elements of Les Angoysses: as we have just seen, Hélisenne is aphasiac in her conflictual relations with men, that is, that she is weighed down by social constraint, violence and psychological distress, whereby she is deprived of the most important of human and social means of expression: speaking. It is acknowledged most of the time that appropriating the right to speak corresponds to seizing power. Hélisenne's silent behavior with men symbolizes the women's non-accessibility to the most valuable social means of expression.

The aphasic state is an ambiguous one, since it is both imposed and accepted at the same time. Aphasia is experienced by Hélisenne as the reaction to an oppressive situation for which she tries to compensate by the écriture in the story of the novel. This process of writing is however hidden, for the husband forbids it; the latter also burns Hélisenne's manuscripts when he finds them: “Je ne trouvay moyen plus convenable que de reduire en ma memoire la piteuse complaincte que paravant j'avoye de ma main escripte, laquelle mon mary avoit bruslée par l'impetuosité de son yre” (p. 139). Clearly seen as a means of compensation in the story, the narration of the love misadventures definitely becomes positive when it reaches the reader in its integral and final version. As a narrator, Hélisenne allows herself to speak, proving the erudition which was emphasized above. By being aware of her abilities and borrowing from other texts what she needs, the author of Les Angoysses creates a skilful work, innovative in some aspects, conformist in others. The contrast between the narrator's expressive activity and the heroine's silence continues to intrigue the reader, and underlines the contradictions inherent in the existence of a French woman of the early XVIth century, especially with regard to the means of expression available to her. One did not only need to know how to read and to write in order to be heard on the public scene. Even though she is erudite, Hélisenne seems to have very little power of action and expression in relation to her environment. She therefore represents, as a character, a typical example of women's role which consisted of being a silent companion. With respect to this situation, Les Angoysses reflects the dynamics of a society which excluded the female sex from most of the important spheres of public life. Hélisenne's aphasia appears in this light as a form of illiteracy in the figurative sense, and the contrast of this illiteracy with the narrator's mastery of language becomes a claim for the woman's right to speak. The writing of Les Angoysses, although it is an indirect, compensating means of expression, allows the reader to hear a woman's voice striving to make us see the extent of her marital and social alienation. Marguerite Briet's text proves to be both a report of a situation and an effort to overcome the imposed limitations. This is one of the interesting aspects of this writing forgotten for a long time and then discredited. Only a few dimensions of the polysemic richness of this work can be revealed in a short study, but even these give rise to very promising reflections concerning our knowledge of woman's experience in the XVIth century.

Notes

1. Paule Demats, Introduction, Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours (First Part) by Hélisenne de Crenne (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1968), p. x.

2. Hélisenne de Crenne (Pseudonym of Marguerite Briet), Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours, ed. Harry R. Secor, Diss. Yale University 1967, p. 3.

3. M. J. Baker, “Fiammetta and the Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours,” Symposium, 27 (1973): 303, 307.

4. Diane Wood, “Literary Devices and Rhetorical Techniques in the Works of Hélisenne de Crenne,” Diss. Wisconsin-Madison 1975, p. 41.

5. Irene M. Bergal, “Hélisenne de Crenne, a Sixteenth Century French Novelist,” Diss. University of Minnesota 1966, p. 36.

6. Yves Giraud, Marc-René Jung, La Renaissance (1480-1548) (Paris: Arthaud, 1972), p. 169.

7. Richard L. Frautschi, “Narrative Voice in Les Angoysses douloureuses I: The ‘Axe Présent,’” French Forum, 1 (1976): 209-16.

8. Hélisenne de Crenne, p. 45. See also Tom Conley, “Feminism, Ecriture and the Closed Room: The Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours,” Symposium, 27 (1973): 326.

9. Hélisenne de Crenne, p. 3; Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, “La Dualité structurelle des Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours,” Revue Frontenac, 2 (1984): 4.