Poet, novelist, sometime member of Mademoiselle de Montpensier’s circle and correspondent of the Mercure Galant, Cantenac (Bordeaux 1630?-1714) was notorious in his own time but has only recently become the subject of serious study.  This is the first critical edition of Les Marguerites, poèmes héroïque, a volume originally published in Bordeaux in 1676.  Written in alexandrines, divided into five cantos (chants), Les Marguerities offers a fascinating example of playful contemporary poetic taste where epic heroism is transformed into gallantry. This is a volume in the Textes littéraires/Exeter French Texts.  The text, introduction and essential notes are all in French.