Menippean Satire. Title of a work that made much noise at the time of the League at the end of the sixteenth century, and which is still much sought after by the inquisitive; this is why I have decided to say a word about it, because of its singularity.

The work which carries this title is that which we pleasantly call the Catholicon d’Espagne , which appeared in 1593, [1] and of the Abrégé des états de la ligue , which was printed the following year; this was called Menippean Satire .

The author of the abridged chronology of the history of France teaches us that Mr. le Roi, chaplain of the young cardinal of Bourbon, and since then canon of Rouen, was the sole author of the Catholicon . As for the Abrégé des états de la ligue , many worked on it; Passerat and Rapin, two good poets who composed the verses; Mr. Gillot, counsellor in the Parliament of Paris, of whom we have an eloge in Latin by Calvin, made a harangue against the legate cardinal. Florent Chrétien, man of intelligence, composed the harangue against the cardinal Pellevé. We are indebted to the wise Pierre Pithou for the harangue against Mr. Aubrai, which is the best of all; and we also owe to Rapin the harangue against the archbishop of Lyon; and the one against Dr. Rose, old master of the college of Navarre, and bishop of Senlis. Menippean Satire was perhaps hardly less useful to Henri IV than the battle of Ivri [2], or the Hudibras [3] of Butler to Charles II of England. The ridiculous has a great hold on men. Risus rerum saepe maximarum momenta vertit , says Quintilian.

Notes

1. La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne was written in 1593 and published in Tours in 1594.

2. The Catholic League, which opposed the reign of Henri de Navarre, a protestant, in favor of the cardinal Charles de Bourbon, was defeated at the battle of Ivry on March 14, 1590.

3. A satirical work written between 1660 and 1680 against Cromwellians and Presbyterians by Samuel Butler, an Anglican royalist.