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Dear friend La Moussaye

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Dear friend La Moussaye is a satyrical poem in macaronic verse written in 1643 in latin and attributed to Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé.[1]

History

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Louis, Prince of Condé (1621-1686) is said to have written the poem in an exchange of letters with his friend and aide-de-camp Amaury III de Goyon, Marquis de La Moussaye (1601-1674), when he was twenty-two years old.[1] The poem features Condé and de La Moussaye traveling on the river Rhone,[2][3] surprised by a thunderstorm, Conde exclaimed "We are going to drown!" to which de La Moussaye is said to have answered: "Our lives are safe, for we are sodomites" ie. homosexuals.[4]

According to Professor Mark Bannister, Prince of Condé was known in his youth as a libertine noble motivated by a desire to shock and "to ridicule the protocol to which a Prince du Sang was expected to conform".[5] Condé was also prepared to use his authority to take the defence of "sodomites",[6] while evoking the subject of homosexuality in songs, was a form of self-derision.[6] According to Christian Kühner, lecturer in history at the University of Freiburg, for young libertine nobles, playing with the forbidden, like homosexuality or atheistic opinions, was also a way of strengthening a relationship.[7]

The refrain "Landerirette" indicates that the dialogue was very likely sung, possibly to a tune that both correspondents would have sung together on their shared travels and military campaigns.[8]

Content

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Marquis de La Moussaye (1601-1674)

Grand Condé:

Carus amicus Mussœus,
Ah! Deus bone! quod tempus!
Landerirette;
Imbre sumus perituri,
Landeriri.[4]
Dear friend La Moussaye
Ah! Good God! What weather!
Landerirette,
We are going to drown,
Landeridi.[9]

Marquis de La Moussaye:

Securæ sunt nostræ vitæ,
Sumus enim Sodomitæ;
Landerirette;
Igne tantum perituri,
Landeriri.[4]
Our lives are safe,
For we are sodomites.
Landerirette,
And shall perish only by fire,
Landeridi.[10]

Legacy

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The playfulness element about the protagonists sexual preferences appealed to Marcel Proust who quoted the poem in In Search of Lost Time.[8] The insinuation made in the last verse was use by one of Condé's former allies, Conte Jean de Coligny-Saligny, who after an altercation with the Prince became his most heinous enemy.[4] The poem was also reported by Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans, the famous Versailles gossipmonger, who questioned whether Condé really made a confession.[11] In the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, published in 1990, "Dear friend La Moussaye" was incorrectly attributed to Prince Eugene of Savoy.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b Descharmes et al. 2011, p. 69.
  2. ^ De Chouvigny De Blot 1919, p. 68.
  3. ^ Marcel Proust 1923, p. 135.
  4. ^ a b c d Brunet 1857, p. 16.
  5. ^ Bannister 2017, p. 90.
  6. ^ a b Tin & Redburn 2008, p. 536.
  7. ^ Descharmes et al. 2011, p. 70.
  8. ^ a b Hammond 2019, p. 135.
  9. ^ Aubrey, 124.
  10. ^ Aubrey, 125.
  11. ^ Orléans & Brunet 1863, p. 241.
  12. ^ Dynes 2016, p. 818.

Sources

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  • De Chouvigny De Blot, C. (1919). Chansons libertines (in French).
  • Descharmes, B.; Heuser, E.A.; Krüger, C.; Loy, T.; Asch, R.G.; Dabringhaus, S.; Gander, H.H. (2011). Varieties of friendship: Interdisciplinary perspectives on social relationships. V&R Unipress. ISBN 978-3-86234-108-5.
  • Brunet, G. (1857). Le Nouveau siècle de Louis XIV; Choix de chansons: historiques et satiriques, accompagnées de notes par le traducteur de la Correspondance de Madame Duchesse d'Orléans (in French). Librairie de Garnier frères.
  • Marcel Proust (1923). A la recherche du temps perdu. A la recherche du temps perdu (in French). Librairie Gallimard.
  • Hammond, N. (2019). The Powers of Sound and Song in Early Modern Paris. Perspectives on Sensory History. Penn State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-08553-1.
  • Orléans, C.E.; Brunet, G. (1863). Correspondance complète de madame duchesse d'Orléans (in French). Charpentier.
  • Tin, L.G.; Redburn, M. (2008). The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 978-1-55152-314-9.
  • Bannister, M. (2017). Conde in Context: Ideological Change in Seventeenth-century France. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-19833-2.
  • Dynes, W.R. (2016). Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: Volume I. Routledge Revivals: Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-36814-4.