Friday, September 11, 2009

Sixteenth Century Quote of the Week

I've decided on a new feature for Fridays--the Sixteenth Century Quote of the Day. Each Friday, I will post a quotation from a sixteenth century writer--poet, essayist, teller of tales--or celebrity--king, queen, politician, ambassador, artist, bishop, or commentator. My hope is that these snippets will shed some light on what people thought and talked about during the Renaissance.

Today's quotation is from the Lyonnaise poet Louise Labé (c 1520-1566), the first middle-class woman to publish under her own name in French (and, coincidentally, the model for the main character of my first novel). I've used this quotation as the opening epitaph for The Measure of Silence:


Le plus grand plaisir qui soit après amour,
c’est d’en parler.”

“The greatest pleasure there is after love
is talking about it.”

—Louise Labé
Débat de Folie et d’Amour (1555)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... those French; love, love, love.
What is it about love?

BALLET NEWS said...

Oh WOW, this is a great post & you have the most gorgeous site here. I had to stop by to leave this comment for you – and to say hello of course ! Your posts are creative and original and you have interesting pictures. It's all perfect ! Thank you for sharing your site and best wishes....

Julianne Douglas said...

Thank YOU, Elise, for the compliments! What a wonderful way to start the day. :) I'm glad you like the site, and hope you'll visit often.