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MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, REINE DE NAVARRE (1553–1615): PATRONESS AND PERFORMER
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2015
Abstract
This essay studies the role played by Marguerite de Valois in the cultural life of the French court from early childhood until her death in 1615. Trained to perform in public, Marguerite acquired languages and diplomatic skills, and cultivated music and dancing in particular. Her passion for dancing and the energy and mastery she displayed in performance is traced through the testimony of contemporary records (French, Italian and English), through her own recollections, and through a discussion of her patronage of musicians, poets and dancers.
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References
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40 The cornet player Nicolas Delinet, for example, was paid 100 écus by Henri de Navarre, who had asked (20 Mar. 1579) that he be sent from Paris to participate in the fêtes; Handy, Musiciens, p. 105.
41 D’Aubigné’s remarks can be found in Fernand Desonay’s edition of Le Printemps, Stances et Odes (Textes Littéraires Français; Geneva, 1952), p. xxxviii.
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43 For an account of her sojourn in the Low Countries, see Marguerite de Valois, Mémoires, pp. 427–38.
44 The details of all these expenses and payments to poets and violinists are recorded in Archives nationales, KK 130.
45 These programmes are very valuable for the historian of ballet as, after their use during the performance, they were printed along with extra verses composed by poets for the occasion, using the publication as a means of advertising their talent.
46 For works composed by Guillaume de Baïf, see Iain Fenlon, ‘Competition and Emulation: Music and Dance for the Celebrations in Paris, 1612–1615’, in McGowan (ed.), Dynastic Marriages, pp. 136–53, notably pp. 140–1. It should be noted that Guillaume also composed the texts for the 1612 horse ballet.
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49 The manuscript, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum (MS Mu 689), contains 242 pieces of solo lute music principally by English and French composers; it is described and set in context by Iain Fenlon (ed.), Cambridge Music Manuscripts, 900–1700 (Cambridge, 1982), no. 49, pp. 155–9. The manuscript was probably collated at the same time from a variety of sources, especially from French musicians like Julien Perrichon (court lutenist to Henri IV), Jacques Gaultier (lutenist who later sojourned in England) or the royal publisher Robert Ballard. It contains many dances – courantes, pavanes and galliards – some composed by the violinist Jacques de Belleville, who was responsible for a large number of tunes danced at Louis XIII’s court. I would like to thank Dr Elisabeth Giselbrecht for having provided me with an analysis of the manuscript.
50 For a discussion of Michel Henry’s manuscript (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 24357, fols. 310–17), Table de Ballets à 3, 4 et 5 parties qui se trouvent dans un recueil fait en 1600 [sic] par Michel Henry l’un des 24 violons, copié sur l’original dudit Michel Henry, see McGowan, , L’Art du Ballet, p. 50Google Scholar; for a modern copy of Henry’s list, Lesure, François, ‘Le Recueil de Ballets de Michel Henry (vers 1620)’, in Jean Jacquot (ed.), Les Fêtes de la Renaissance, i (Paris, 1956), pp. 205–220Google Scholar.
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