Madeleine Des Roches


Madeleine Des Roches was a French writer of the Renaissance. She was the mother of Catherine Fradonnet, called Catherine Des Roches, to whom she taught poetry, literature and ancient languages. She is a writer in the tradition of Christine de Pizan and others, working to establish a community of women writers.

Biography

Madeleine Neveu married André Fradonnet, seigneur Des Roches, the procurer of Poitiers around 1539. In a second marriage, Madeleine Des Roches wed the lawyer François Eboissard, seigneur de la Villée.
Contemporaries of Pierre Ronsard, and friends of the humanist Estienne Pasquier, Madeleine Des Roches and her daughter were the center of a literary circle based in Poitiers between 1570 and 1587, and which included the poets Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Barnabé Brisson, René Chopin, Antoine Loisel, Claude Binet, Nicolas Rapin and Odet de Turnèbe. The circle is best known for a collection of gallant verse entitled La Puce de Madame Des Roches in which the poets, inspired by an original poem by Pasquier, wrote on the theme of a flea upon Catherine's throat. Des Roches is now seen as an important successor of the literary legacy of Christine de Pizan, arguing as de Pizan did for the necessity of a "City of Ladies", a literary community of women.
Both she and her daughter died of an epidemic on the same day.
The combined output of mother and daughter—which was published collectively—comprise epistles, odes, sonnets, stanzas, epitaphs, and a few dialogues in prose and verse. In her writings, Madeleine Des Roches spoke of how her domestic activities hindered her from investing as much time as she would have wished into her literary activities. Her poems reveal a large erudition and associate knowledge with virtue.

Works

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