XVII En toy habite desormais Pourquoi, chetif laboureur... 1 breast-plate. (Odes, IV. xiv., 1555) Pourquoy, chetif laboureur, Courage, coupeur de terre! Autant leur vaudront leurs mailles, Leurs lances et leur estoc,2 Comme à toy vaudra ton soc. Je seray sous la terre, et, fantosme sans os, Regrettant mon amour et vostre fier desdain. THÉODORE AGRIPPA D'AUBIGNÉ (b. Saint-Maury, Saintonge, 1552; d. Geneva, 1630) WHEN d'Aubigné was a boy of eight, his father showed him on the gibbet at Amboise the bodies of Protestant gentlemen who had suffered for their faith, and he made his son take a vow of vengeance. During his long and active life Agrippa never forgot his vow. He devoted sword and pen to the Reformed cause, and no less than four times he was sentenced to death for heresy. While yet a mere youth, he fought in the wars of religion and, after completing under Théodore de Bèze at Geneva his interrupted studies, followed the varied fortunes of Henry of Navarre as a faithful soldier and candid friend till 1593, when Henry abjured the Protestant religion, to become King of France. During the last years of the king's reign, d'Aubigné wrote, in Saintonge, his Histoire universelle, which, being naturally anti-Catholic, was, when at last published in 1620, publicly burnt, whereupon he fled to Geneva. Les Tragiques were not published till 1616, but they had been composed, if not completed, thirty-six years before, and they continue the poetic manner of La Pléiade. Like his master, Ronsard, he wrote too freely; the seven long books of his epic are often verbose and obscure, but they contain passages or, rather, stray lines of great power which herald the advent of Corneille. For sheer intensity of feeling d'Aubigné has few equals; in condensed hatred, Les Tragiques rival Les Châtiments (see p. 114). THÉODORE AGRIPPA D'AUBIGNÉ 35 EXTRACTS XXI. An impassioned, if not impartial, appeal to God to discriminate between the contending parties in the religious wars. XXII. The tortures of the ungodly when the time for repentance is passed. XXI Le Poète invoque la Vengeance divine (Les Tragiques: Misères) Ne tyrannisons point d'envie nostre vie, Si tu leur fais des biens, ils s'enflent en blasphemes, Cette bande meurtrière à boire nous convie. Chastie en ta douceur, punis en ta furie Veux-tu long-temps laisser en cette terre ronde |