SOURCE: Vesce, Thomas A. “Notes on Antoine de La Sale's Réconfort de Mme du Fresne.” Mediaeval Studies XXXVII (1975): 478-93.

In the following essay, Vesce studies the way in which La Sale focuses on private, familial concerns rather than public and political matters in Le réconfort de Madame du Fresne. Vesce also highlights La Sale's facility in the realistic depiction of every day life.

I Los and Largess in the First Tale of the Reconfort De Madame Du Fresne

The scene which Antoine de la Sale draws in the first of the two tales in the Réconfort de Madame Du Fresne is one which is reminiscent of the old French epic: the siege of a city. The place in question here is the city of Breth (Brest) which, according to the author, is enduring an attack by the Prince of Wales during one of the contests...