Building Resemblance: Analogical Imagery in the Early French Renaissance by Michael Randall (review)

rather if rhe friend had been read by a good book lately. After encountering rhe fascinating arguments in The Idea ofthe VernacuUr, no readerwill ever again be as sure as Robertson and Auden once were. % Michael Randall. BuildingResemblance:AnalogicalImagery in the Early French Renaissance. Baltimore: TheJohns Hopkins University Press, 1996. 22Ip. Margaret Harp University op Nevada, Las Vegas This finely argued book analyzes the manner in which three early modern writers , Jean Molinet, Jean Lemaire de Belges, and François Rabelais, used allegorical and analogical imagery in their works. Tracing the presentation of resemblance and difference in selected works of these authors, Randall attempts to establish that "building" resemblance proved oftentimes illusoryfor thesewriters ofthe late medieval / early Renaissance period as they confronted the emergent presentation ofself in early modern European society. He is, in large part, successful and his partial study ofheretofore understudied texts makes for an interesting, albeit demanding , read. Randall concludes that the works ofrhe earliest writer, Molinet, offer an uneasy balance between like and unlike, that those ofLemaire, "astride an epistemológica! divide," emphasize resemblance, and finally, that the works of Rabelais champion difference (85). One ofrhe chiefattributes ofthis workis its emphasis on the Burgundian court poets Molinet and Lemaire, authors whose works are less studied and certainly not in context with Rabelais' œuvre. Randall first examines Molinet's late fifteenthcentury poems Roman de L· rose moraliséand Chappellet des dames. The first, he argues persuasively, is an unusual and "flamboyant" allegory which links characterizations found in the Roman de L· Rose to spiritual love. Randall offers Jean Gerson's early fifteenth-century mystical theology as its theoretical parallel and demonstrates well Molinet's dilemma: "The actual experience ofthe divine is beyondwords , andyet Molinet must connect the carnal love ofrhe Rose to the spiritual love ofhis gloss" (35). In his 1478 tribute to Mary ofBurgundy, Chappellet des dames, Molinet compares her with the Virgin Mary. He uses what Randall terms an inverted analogy, with the perfect (the Virgin Mary) being used to describe rhe imperfect (Mary of Burgundy). There is a resultant "chaotic mix of earthly and secular" imagery which "has no structural support or function" (49). As contrast, Randall next features Lemaire's La Couronne margaritique (1505) a poem modeled on rhe Chappelletbut one in which the subject — Marguerite of MO * ROCKY mountain REVIEW # SPRING 2000 Austria — is viewed in the context of a coherent hierarchy ofexistence. Rather than attempting to compare the secular and the divine, as did Molinet, Lemaire, rather, uses symbols to bring the two together, creating a rational ontology. Randall's exhaustive study of Lemaire's Concorde du genre humain (1505) and Concordedesdeux Ungues (1511) further proves Lemaire's attachment to the principle ofharmony and hence to Neo-Platonism. These passages are detailed and demanding but very rewarding for the reader. In them Randall clearly presents how the traditional poetics of resemblance were in transition at the turn of the sixteenth century. Throughout the four chapters on Molinetand Lemaire, Randall demonstrates a solid understanding ofthe philosophies ofAristotle, Aquinas, and Ockham, theories which served as underpinnings ofthe literature presented. Randall's last two chapters highlight the differences in analogical imagery he perceives between Rabelais' initial works and his final one, placing particular emphasis on the QuartLivre. In general, this work has been neglected by scholars and it is good to see it receiving close critical attention. Randalls fine theoretical analysis of the analogical distinctions between Rabelais' works, which at times refutes Foucault's reading ofthe Renaissance, is important and helps to dispel the popular notion that Rabelais' is a monolithic œuvre. Notably, Randall provides some ofthe mostsuccinct and reliablesummations available ofparticular episodes. For instance, in describing Panurge's cowardice in the QuartLivres tempestscene, Randall rightly observes that Panurge's "words mean nothing. They are cut off from their referents, just as his use ofdubious saints cuts him offfrom the simple truth ofGod as revealed through scripture" (119). Ultimately, however, Randall does not see the humor in this episode nor in the Quart Livre in general, and for this reader, misconstrues Rabelais' intent. Reducing Rabelais' last book to an example of"fractured resemblance" — that is, where there are no longer examples ofabsolute truths as...