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Chanteurs de rue, or street singers in early modern France

Bibliographic Data

ID11499367
AuthorsUna Mcilvenna (0000-0002-4798-7880, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume33
Issue1
Pages64-93
Publication date2019-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRenaissance Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-1213 • E-ISSN: 1477-4658
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/rest.12530
OpenAlexW2913895578
LanguageEN
Citations received3

The impression one tends to have about the profession of the street singer in early modern France is of one voice struggling to be heard amongst a cacophony of other ambulant sellers crying their goods for sale. This vision is encouraged by the centuries‐old genre of the ‘cris de Paris’, immortalised in verse as early as the thirteenth century. This paper outlines in greater detail the figure of the chanteur de rue in the early modern period, from eye‐witness accounts (more plentiful for the eighteenth century), from pictorial evidence, and from clues within the songs themselves. There is evidence to suggest that different types of songs were performed by different types of singers, with the singer of complaintes (execution songs) adopting a costume and demeanour that distinguished him from the singer of ‘profane songs’. However, French songs in the sixteenth century were often sold in cheaply printed recueils , songbooks on a surprisingly diverse range of topics. This paper therefore examines how a street singer might have performed and sold these often heterogenous texts, and how the authorities tried in vain to control and censor these potentially subversive singers of news

Aesthetics · Art · Crying · Literature · Period (music · Political science · Visual arts · Witness · European Political History Analysis · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Psychology

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Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,27
Citation span2015 - 2025 (11)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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