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)