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The Dedication and Rededication of Ronsard's Hymne de La Mort
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Throughout his life Ronsard continued the practice of taking his dedications away from those whom the years had estranged or whom he had forgotten, offering them to others who stood higher in his affections at the moment of publishing each successive edition of his works. Considering his poems his own property, of which he alone had the right to dispose, and feeling, with a certain amount of reason, that it was within his power to render immortal those whose names he included in his works, Ronsard's poetic pride could easily justify any change in dedication. He even went so far as to dedicate to Cassandre, in the edition of 1578, fifteen sonnets which had formerly been addressed to Marie. This practice, we may be sure, led him into more than one ticklish situation, but probably on no such occasion was he himself more embarrassed nor his friends more amused than by his recall of the Hymne de la Mort.
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References
page 432 note 1 Paschal's life and relations with the poets of the Pléiade are treated at considerable length in M. Pierre de Nolhac's Ronsard et l'humanisme, Paris, 1921, pp. 262–339.
page 433 note 2 Petri Paschalii adversus Ioannis Maulii parricidas Actio in Senatu Veneto Recitata. Eiusdem Gallia, per prosopopoeiam inducta in Venetam Remp. Oratio de Legibus, Romae habita, cum Iuris insignia caperei. Epistolae in Italica peregrinatione exaratae. Apud Seb. Gryphium, Lugduni, 1548.
page 433 note 3 Odes, critical ed. by Laumonier (Hachette), i, 160–162.
page 433 note 4 Odes, ii, 84–85. Ronsard here lauds Paschal's defense of Jean de Mauléon before the Venetian Senate.
page 433 note 5 Œuvres complètes, éd. Laumonier, Paris, Lemerre, 1914–1919, vi, 160. All references, except to the Odes, are to this edition.
page 434 note 6 With him, among others, are Baïf, Dorat, Jodelle, and Du Bellay. In 1560, Paschal's name was replaced by that of Olivier de Magny, and the list varied as new friends were formed and old ones fell from favor. M. Laumonier has published the text of 1553 in the Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, 1905, p. 249.
page 434 note 7 This is attested by a letter from Denys Lambin to Ronsard. Cf. Nolhac, op. cit., p. 297.
page 434 note 8 In his Hymne de Charles, cardinal de Lorraine, Ronsard praises Paschal along with Dorat, Du Bellay, and Michel de L'Hospital.
page 434 note 9 Odes, i, 162.
page 434 note 10 Œuvres, vi, 207.
page 434 note 11 Fol. 22. A Pierre de Paschal, du bas païs du Languedoc.
page 434 note 12 In justice to Paschal it should be pointed out that his history of the reign of Henri II, although falling far short of expectations, was gradually being compiled and actually progressed farther than was admitted by his contemporaries. There is not a trace, however, of his chapters on literature, so one is justified in concluding that they were never even begun. Cf. Longnon, Pierre de Ronsard, p. 273; and P. de Nolhac, op. cit., pp. 330–339.
page 436 note 13 See Ronsard's biting satire Petri Paschasii Elagium, published by M. de Nolhac, op. cit., pp. 262–270.
page 436 note 14 P. de Nolhac, “Le premier salon littéraire de Paris,” Revue Universelle, 1er juin 1921, pp. 337–352.
page 436 note 15 Notably, in putting an end to the scoffings of Mellin de Saint-Gelais and establishing the poets of the Pléiade in the good graces of Madame Marguerite. Cf. Nolhac, Ronsard et l'humanisme, pp. 179–187; Laumonier, Ronsard, poète lyrique, pp. 70–119.
page 436 note 16 Cf. in Du Bellay's Poemata, Paris, 1558, the poem entitled De Camilla Jani Morelli F.
page 436 note 17 See below.
page 437 note 18 Pierre de Ronsard, Paris, p. 282. M. Longnon published only the verse.
page 437 note 19 Fonds Dupuy, vol. 843, p. 142.
page 437 note 20 vii, 463.
page 437 note 21 Even in 1558 Du Bellay had boasted that “… Camille joue avec les vers latins comme si elle était née dans le Latium. Elle parle si élégamment la langue grecque que vous jureriez que c'est une jeune Athénienne. Camille sait encore l'hébreu, elle l'écrit comme elle écrit le latin. Camille compose des vers français, auxquels Ronsard lui-même pourrait porter envie; elle touche la lyre avec une grace qui désespérerait Apollon; et ce qui vous étonnera bien davantage, c'est que Camille est à peine dans son dixième printemps.” (De Camilla Jani Morelli F., translated by Coupé, Les Soirées Littéraires, Paris, 1795.)
page 438 note 22 Fonds français 22, 560, fol. 106v.
page 438 note 23 The poems of Antoinette de Loynes bear the following titles:
Par A. D. Damoyselle Parisienne. Sonnet. Cf. Charles de Sainte-Marthe, Oraison funebre de l'incomparable Marguerite, royne de Navarre, duchesse d'Alençon. Paris, 1550, p. 133.
D'Elle Mesme. Loc. cit.
Sonet par Damoiselle Ant. Del. Cf. Tombeau de Marguerite de Valois, Paris, 1551, fol. Giii.
Damoiselle A. D. L. Sonnet. Ibid., fol. Lviii.
Epigramme sur le trespas de Gelonis, par Damoyselle A ntoinette Deloynes. Cf. Salmonii Macrinii … de Gelonide Borsata uxore diarissima …, Paris, 1550, p. 135.
page 439 note 24 Œuvres, vii, 123.
page 439 note 25 Cf. Mémoires-Journaux, Paris, Lemerre, 1875–1896, viii, 242–243; ix, 127, 199–200; xi, 80.
page 439 note 26 Œuvres, ii, 144.
page 440 note 27 V. C. Joan. Morelli … Tumulus, Paris, F. Morel, 1583.
page 440 note 28 Tumulus, p. 45. Camilla Morella ad Ronsardum.
page 440 note 29 Antoinette de Loynes collaborated with Nicolas Denisot, Jacques Peletier du Mans, Baïf, and Du Bellay in the translation into French of the Tombeau de Marguerite de Valois, first composed in Latin couplets by the Seymour sisters. Antoinette translated eighteen couplets.
page 440 note 30 Both of these letters concern Sainte-Marthe's contribution to Morel's Tumulus. (Bibliothèque de l'Institut, MS 290, fols. 44, 46.)