Mère Sotte and Balaam’s Ass: Title Pages in Pierre Gringore’s Propagandist Works

Abstract

As a celebrated poet and playwright in early sixteenth-century Paris, Pierre Gringore became one of the chief propagandists of the political and military policies of French King Louis XII. Between 1505 and 1515 Gringore wrote and performed in soties and farces with humorous political overtones, while at the same time becoming one of the earliest poets not only to have his works published, but also to be engaged actively in the publication process. Cynthia. J. Brown, a principal Gringore scholar, has argued convincingly that Gringore blurred the lines between his own identity and that of his well-known stock character Mère Sotte by portraying himself as Mère Sotte on the title page of his satirical Les Folles Entreprises (1507), Coqueluche (1510), and Le Jeu du Prince des Sotz et Mere Sotte (1512).¹