Pamphlets in verse or prose produced during the Fronde, mostly directed against Mazarin, the Queen Mother Anne d'Autriche, or the financiers. Published in vast numbers (several thousand for the period 1649-53), they continued the tradition of pamphleteering from the Wars of Religion. La Mazarinade (1651), generally attributed to Scarron, gave its name to the whole series, which quickly began to be collected by amateurs. Many of the pamphlets are anonymous, but well-known writers such as Patru and Sarasin were also involved; one of the major authors writing for Retz was Jacques Carpentier, known as Marigny. Many mazarinades take the form of popular songs, set to existing melodies. Their tone is often highly scurrilous; in vocabulary and in verse forms (notably the octosyllable) they echo the contemporary vogue for the burlesque.
[Peter France]
