COQUILLART, GUILLAUME
(1452?–1510). First a lawyer in Paris, then an official of Reims cathedral, Coquillart
wrote mock court cases and humorous debates and monologues: Plaidoyé and Enqueste
d’entre la simple et la rusée (1478–79), Droitz nouveaulx (1480?), Débat des dames et
des armes (1498?), and Monologue Coquillart. Four other dramatic monologues
expressing the tribulations of lovers caught in the act and a sequel to the Droitz
nouveaulx have also been attributed to him.
Coquillart treats domestic or erotic subjects in a mock-serious style. His first three
works, written for the Basoche of Paris, use legal language and procedure to resolve such
cases as that of the bourgeois wife who sues her chamber-maid for alienating her lover’s
affections. The Droitz nouveaulx, Coquillart’s most popular work, is a legalistic
compilation of such cases; Plaidoyé and Enqueste examine the claims of two women
disputing possession of one man. The Débat des dames et des armes, which argues
whether a prince should devote himself to war or women, was probably written for the
entry of Louis XII to Reims, where Coquillart held important ecclesiastical and municipal
posts. His works, full of verve, gaiety, and bawdy language, mock the foibles and
foolishness of his contemporaries.
Heather M.Arden
[See also: BASOCHE]
Coquillart, Guillaume. Œuvres: suivies d’œuvres attribuées a l’auteur, ed. Michael J.Freeman.
Geneva: Droz, 1975.
——. Les droitz nouveaulx, ed. and trans. Maria Luisa Miranda. Rome: Bonacci, 1988.
CORBIE
. At the confluence of the Ancre with the Somme, Corbie (Somme) is the site of one of
the most influential Benedictine abbeys of the Carolingian period. Founded in 657 by St.
Balthild, wife of Clovis II, it was headed briefly by Charlemagne’s cousin St. Adalard. It
was here that Paschasius Radbertus wrote the first theological treatise on the eucharist.
All that remains of the powerful abbey are portions of the abbey church of Saint-Pierre,
begun in 1498 in Flamboyant Gothic style, and the Romanesque church of Saint-Étienne,
with a 13th-century portal of the Coronation of the Virgin.
William W.Kibler/William W.Clark
Gaillard, L., and J.Daoust, eds. Corbie, abbaye royale. Lille: Facultés Catholiques, 1963.
Héliot, Pierre. L’abbaye de Corbie, ses églises et ses bâtiments. Louvain: Publications de
l’Université de Louvain, 1957.
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