Orpheus and the broom handle makers Tristan as heir to the festive poetry of the sixteenth century

The festive output of Tristan has two faces: one grimacing and simian, the other grave and serious. In point of fact, the poet of Gaston d’Orléans is the heir to two festive traditions that were particularly lively in the sixteenth century, one being allegorical ballets and the other, less well known, lighter, and more heterodox, being masquerades of the trades.