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| Louise Labé in 1555, Engraving by Pierre Woeiriot (1532-1596) |
"Since the time has now come, Mademoiselle, when men’s harsh laws no longer prevent women from applying themselves to study and learning, it seems to me that those who have the means should take advantage of this well-deserved freedom — so fervently desired by our sex in the past — to pursue them, and to show men how wrong they were to deprive us of the benefit and recognition these things might have given us. And if any of us succeeds to the point where she can put her ideas down in writing, she should do it seriously and not disdain fame, but adorn herself with it, rather than with chains, rings, and lavish clothing, all of which we cannot truly consider our own except by social custom.But the honor that education brings us will be entirely our own, and cannot be taken away from us — neither by a thief’s trickery, nor by an enemy’s force, nor by the passage of time."
Louise Labé (1524-1566)
Poet, Evvres de Louize Labé Lionnoise (1555)
Dedicatory Epistle to Clémence de Bourges
Translated by Deborah Lesko Baker (2006)
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