Et ces roses icy, Ces vermeillettes roses De vostre doulce halaine Ce pendant que j'ahanne1 XII Heureux qui, comme Ulysse... (Regrets, XXXI., 1559) Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage, Et puis est retourné, plein d'usage et raison, Quand revoiroy-je, helas! de mon petit village Plus me plaist le sejour qu'ont basty mes ayeulx Plus mon Loyre 2 gaulois que le Tybre latin; THE life of "Ronsart," as the name was spelled originally, was, like his poetry, essentially aristocratic. He left the Collège de Navarre to become page to the Dauphin, and at the age of thirteen accompanied James V. and Madeleine of France to Scotland, where he spent two years, after which he lived at the French Court till, at the age of eighteen, deafness dashed his hopes of preferment. Then he chose the scholar's life, and for five years studied Greek under the great teacher, Dorat. With a fellow-student, du Bellay (see p. 23), he wrote the manifesto which appeared in 1549 (see Introduction, p. 3), and then began to publish specimens of the new poetry. During the next fifteen years, spent partly at Court and partly at home in Touraine, Ronsard lived in the blaze of fame. After the death of his benefactor Charles IX. in 1574, he spent his declining days in the quiet of his country home among his roses. No poet ever reached before his death such glory as Ronsard. Kings and queens treated him as their equal. Mary of Scotland and Elizabeth of England loaded him with admiration and honours, and Charles IX. was said to have addressed him a sonnet with the famous couplet: Tous deux également nous portons des couronnes; Ronsard's poetic work falls into four periods: 1550-54 (Pindaric Odes); 1554-60 (Anacreontic inspiration); 156074 (Court poems); 1574-84 (Sonnets pour Hélène); of these periods the second and fourth are the best. His greatness as a lyric poet lies in his evident sincerity, his feeling for the fragility of human life and beauty, his fondness for bird, beast and flower; he is the "poet of the roses." His chief faults are his tendency to diffuseness, fortunately checked by the sonnet-form, undue imitation of the Ancients and Petrarch, and a certain monotony of subject and treatment, Carpe diem—and the roses once again! EXTRACTS XIII. A dirge for Marie, frankly Pagan in inspiration. XIV. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." XV. A miniature drama, with the accustomed moral. XVI. An invocation to the forest, near Ronsard's home, where he found early inspiration. Despite his stay in Scotland, he has no eye for nature in the modern sense; his interest is in the mythological denizens of the forest. XVII. In death all are equal. XVIII. The hospitable old hawthorn with its motley guests. " XIX. Homage to the ladies who inspired, very differently Ronsard's poems: "Cassandre (Mlle. du Pré, c. 1541); Marie du Pin (c. 1550); and Hélène de Surgères (c., 1575). XX. Youth and beauty will not last for ever, but the fame of Ronsard will. XIII Comme on void sur la branche... (Amours, II. iv.) Comme on void sur la branche au mois de may Rendre le ciel jaloux de sa vive couleur, la rose Quand l'aube de ses pleurs au poinct du jour l'arrose, La Grace dans sa fueille et l'Amour se repose, Ainsi, en ta premiere et jeune nouveauté, XIV XV Pour obseques reçoy mes larmes et mes pleurs, Je vous envoye un bouquet... (Amours, Pièces retranchées) Je vous envoye un bouquet que ma main Cela vous soit un exemple certain Que vos beautez, bien qu'elles soient fleuries, Et comme fleurs, periront tout soudain. Le temps s'en va, le temps s'en va, ma dame; Et des amours desquelles nous parlons, A Cassandre (Odes, I. xvii.) Mignonne, allons voir si la rose 1 si l'on. |