Lestocquoy, Jean. Histoire de la Flandre et de l’Artois. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1949.
Wood, Charles T. The French Apanages and the Capetian Monarchy, 1224–1328. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1966.
ARTS DE SECONDE RHÉTORIQUE
. The term seconde rhétorique is used in several 15th-century French poetic treatises in
three senses: to mean verse as opposed to the première rhétorique of prose, vernacular
rhetoric rather than Latin, and poetry written by the laity rather than by clercs. The first
such treatise, L’art de dictier, was written by Eustache Deschamps in 1392, although the
Prologue written by Guillaume de Machaut in the 1370s to introduce his complete works
perhaps has a competing claim as the first vernacular treatise on the art of poetry. The
other Arts include Jacques Legrand’s Des rimes (1405), Les règles de la seconde
rhétorique (1411–32), Baudet Harenc’s Le doctrinal de la seconde rhétorique (1432),
Traité de l’art de rhétorique (1450?), Jean Molinet’s L’art de rhétorique (1493), Traité
de rhétorique (1495–1500), and L’art et science de rhétorique vulgaire (1524–25). Most
of these survive in only a single manuscript, but there are signs of borrowing or of a
common model among several. Five authors refer to the puys d’amour, which makes it
likely that their treatises represent rules of versification drawn up for the judges and
competitors in those contests. Others, including Deschamps, Legrand, and Molinet, claim
to be writing at the request of aristocratic or even royal patrons, presumably in order to
teach them the practical skills of lyric poetry. The works come mainly from northern
France, but also from Chalon-sur-Saône and Lorraine.
The majority of the treatises are simply manuals of lyric versification. Their structure
typically consists of a short introduction followed by a description, with examples, of a
range of rhyme schemes and poetic forms. Five also contain rhyming and spelling lists
and, in one case, glossaries of proper nouns and obscure vocabulary. The examples they
cite include poems by Machaut, Froissart, and Deschamps, as well as poems from the
puys. The anonymous 1450 Traité also appends a separate collection of lyrics. Molinet’s
L’art de rhétorique is the best organized; the 1524–25 treatise copies it closely, and there
are further correspondences with Deschamps, the 1450 treatise, and Baudet Harenc. The
anonymous 1411–32 treatise presents an interesting history of vernacular poetic masters
from Guillaume de Lorris to Froissart and Deschamps.
Few of the treatises offer any kind of poetic philosophy. In fact, most distinguish their
humbler purposes (versification) from instruction in poetry. The case is different for
Machaut and Deschamps. Machaut claims the agency of “Sens,” “Rhétorique,” and
“Musique” in his powers of composition, giving pride of place to Music. Deschamps
similarly emphasizes music, placing poetry under the category of musique naturelle, as
opposed to musique artifi-cielle, or art music. This has been taken by some scholars to
signal a radical departure from traditional medieval views of the relation between music
and poetry. Others, however, argue that there is no contradiction between Des-champs
and Jean de Garlande’s description of rhythm as a species of music and Jean Molinet’s
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