Trial of Womankind
Subtitle: A Rhyming Translation of Book IV of the Fifteenth-century Le Champion Des Dames
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: June 24, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9780786422401
Subjects: Works by individual poets: 16th to 18th centuries; Literature - Classics / Criticism; General; Literary Criticism; French; History: American; Women's Studies - General; Medieval; Continental European; European - French; Poetry
Description: "Medieval literature makes it plain that the Battle of the Sexes has been raging since at least the Middle Ages. In Martin Le Franc's in Le Champion des Dames, this battle takes on literally epic proportions. Here the fourth book of Le Franc's poem comes to life for the modern English reader as The Trial of Womankind."

"In rhyming octaves, Le Franc constructs an allegorical courtroom where two attorneys named Free Will and Slow Wit argue, respectively, the case for and against women. Calling upon classical and contemporary examples from the Nine Muses and the Queen of Sheba to the Popess Joan and Joan of Arc, the attorneys tell a lively story while making plain the political, religious, and social issues of the time. Le Franc invites his readers to participate in this exchange over questions still relevant today." "This translation faithfully renders the literal meaning of the Middle French text while maintaining the original ababbcbc rhyme scheme and stanzaic structure essential to the voice of the work. With historical introduction and notes."--Jacket.