LABE, LOUISE CHARLIN PERRIN (d. 1566), French poet, called La Belle Cordiere, was born at Lyons, probably be tween 1510 and 152o, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, named Charley or Charlin. At the siege of Perpignan she is said to have fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II. Some time before 1551 she married Ennemond Perrin, a ropemaker. She formed a library and gathered round her a society which included many of the learned ladies of Lyons Pernette du Guillet, Claudine and Sibylle Sceve and Clemence de Bourges, and the poets Maurice Sceve, Charles Fontaine, Pontus de Tyard; and among the occasional visitors were Clement Marot and his friend Melin de Saint-Gelais, with probably Bonaventure des Periers and Rabelais. About 155o the poet Olivier de Magny passed through Lyons on his way to Italy in the suite of Jean d'Avanson, the French envoy to the Holy See. As the friend of Ronsard, "Prince of Poets," he met with an enthusiastic reception from Louise. It is said that her passion for Magny inspired her eager, sincere verse, and the elegies probably express her grief at his first absence. A second short visit to Lyons was followed by a second longer absence. Magny's influence is shown more de cisively in the sonnets in her Oeuvres, which, printed in 1555, at tained great popularity. They were in private circulation before this time and are dedicated to Clemence de Bourges. During his
second visit to Italy Magny had apparently consoled himself, and Louise, despairing of his return, encouraged another admirer, Claude Rubys, when her lover returned unexpectedly. Louise dis missed Rubys, but Magny's jealousy found vent in an ode ad dressed to the Sire Aymon (Ennemond), which ruined her repu tation ; while Rubys, angry at his dismissal, avenged himself later in his Histoire veritable de Lyons (1573). This scandal struck a fatal blow at Louise's position. Shortly afterwards her husband died, and she returned to her country house at Parcieu, where she died on April 25, 1566, leaving the greater part of her inherited fortune to the poor. Such is the usual account of Louise Labe's life. But the accounts of it vary. The importance of Louise lies in the reality of her passion, whatever its object, and in the new vehemence and frankness of its expression. Her works include, besides the Elegies and Sonnets mentioned, a prose Debat de folie et d'amour (translated into English by Robert Greene in i6o8).
See editions of her Oeuvres by P. Blanchemain (1875), and by C. Boy (2 vols., 1887). A sketch of Louise Labe and of the Lyonnese Society is in Edith Sichel's Women and Men of the French Renaissance (190i). See also J. Favre, Olivier de Magny (5885).