MICHAULT, PIERRE
(late 15th c.). A poet attached to the court of Burgundy, Michault composed the Procès
d’honneur féminin, a judicial allegory; the Dance aux aveugles (1464), a variation on the
danse macabre featuring the blind Cupido, Fortune, and Atropos; the Doctrinal du temps
present (1466), a moralized satire in prose and verse modeled on the Doctrinale of
Alexander of Villa Dei; and the Complainte sur la mort d’Ysabeau de Bourbon. These
works reflect important variations on standard 15th-century themes: the quarrel between
the champions and detractors of women, the dance of death, court life.
Earl Jeffrey Richards
[See also: QUARREL OF THE BELLE DAME SANS MERCI]
Michault, Pierre. Œuvres poétiques, ed. Barbara Folkart. Paris: Union Générale d’Éditions, 1980.
MICHEL, JEAN
(d. 1501). Author of a Mystère de la Passion played at Angers in 1486, Michel practiced
medicine in that city, serving for a time as doctor to the dauphin, infant son of Charles
VIII. He was also a regent of the University of Angers. Michel based his Passion play on
Days 2 and 3 of Arnoul Greban’s Passion, expanding them to four days and 30,000 lines.
Thus, the work treats only the adult life of Jesus from baptism to death, omitting both his
childhood and the Resurrection. In addition, Michel suppressed the Procès de paradis,
affirming that the Incarnation had been decided from all eternity. Stressing the moral
aspects of the story, he amplified the sermons of Jesus and expanded the roles of three
principal characters: Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, and Judas. He incorporated the oedipal
legend associated with Judas, in which he kills his father and marries his mother. The
other two roles exemplify the importance of repentance for the sinner. Michel’s Passion
continued to be played to the mid-16th century and was sometimes “completed” by the
addition of Days 1 and 4 from Greban’s play.
Alan E.Knight
[See also: GREBAN, ARNOUL; MYSTERY PLAYS; PASSION PLAYS]
Michel, Jean. Le mystère de la Passion, ed. Omer Jodogne. Gembloux: Duculot, 1959.
Accarie, Maurice. Le théâtre sacré de la fin du moyen âge. Geneva: Droz, 1979.
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