The verse epistle is a form conceived in the balance of opposites. As a message composed for a designated addressee, it purports to be a familiar text, but this familiarity is encompassed by a formal verse envelope that governs and delimits the epistle's content and scope of expression. The dual nature of the verse epistle stems from the influences of two distinct literary traditions: French lyric poetry and the ars dictaminis. This study is concerned with exploring the development of a poetic genre that flourished during a period often neglected by modern criticism. It is particularly interested in revealing those literary, social and technological factors that fostered and shaped the late medieval epistle.
In this work, a historio-generic approach is employed to a selective but representative group of epistles composed roughly between 1400-1550. The first chapter, "Defining the Genre," identifies, from a synchronic perspective, the form's generic borders and distinguishing characteristics.
The next four chapters trace the diachronic development of the epistle through several generations of poets. "Generic Exploration, Diversity and Structure: The Early Stages of the French Verse Epistle," addresses the wide range of epistolary texts composed by such writers as Deschamps, Christine de Pisan, Villon, Chastellain and Molinet. Their works clearly demonstrate the epistle's ties to the lyric tradition.
In "The Rhetoriqueurs and Generic Conformity," the epistolary works of a generation of poets (Cretin, Lemaire and Jean Marot) are examined for whom, both in professional and social concerns, the epistle proved to be a highly serviceable form. In their hands, the genre achieved a sense of structural and thematic identity.
The last two chapters focus primarily on the work of Clement Marot, the recognized master of the genre. "Marot and the Familiar Epistle" examines how the poet exploited the personalizing potential of the form. In the last chapter, "The Early Sixteenth-Century Love Epistle and the Elegie Marotique," a survey of the development of the love epistle during the early sixteenth century is provided which exposes those influences that lead Marot to thematically divide his epistolary works into epi tres and elegies.