“Il me prit un frisson si grand”: Writing the Body in the Mémoires and Letters of Marguerite de Valois

Abstract

T he body ’ s surface played an important role in early modern courtly life. Written accounts of the time show that studying and imitating speci fi c behaviors had a political and social value. If courtiers could learn to read the surface of the body and reproduce speci fi c signs and behaviors, they were likely to be successful in a variety of courtly settings. But can the memory of a blush linger for years, even decades? What does it mean to recreate a scene with high emotional stakes? How can writing about such moments be an act of control over one ’ s narrative and leg-acy? Because of the omnipresence of Baldesar Castiglione ’ s Book of the Courtier (1528), and the male bias in the Renaissance and the centuries that followed, most scholarship on the Renaissance court has focused on handbooks and guides for male courtiers. 1 Of course, female members of court also held important positions