Standing at the stake, Gilles de Rais asks forgiveness for his crimes from the crowd of onlookers.
Illustration by Alfred Paris, taken from Les Brigands by Frantz Funck-Brentano, 1913
Of course, all the words put into Gilles de Rais' mouth, at his trial and execution, were inventions. Since he died convicted of sodomy, the record of his trial should have been burned on his pyre with him. Instead, it was edited & multiple copies made to serve as a cautionary parable of sin and repentance.
No comments:
Post a Comment