After Ronsard the foremost poet of the Pleiad. He was of an illustrious family, but, cut off from a brilliant public career by ill health and deafness, he sought consolation in letters. He even preceded Ronsard in inaugurating the literary reform, issuing the manifesto of the new movement, his Défense et Illustration de la langue française, his collection of sonnets called Olive, and a Recueil de poésies, all in 1549. Shortly afterwards he accompanied his cousin, Cardinal du Bellay, to Rome; the admiration which the historic associations of the city excited in him and his disgust at the intrigues of the court and the corruptions of Italian life, mingled with homesickness for the pleasant sights and quiet air of his native Anjou, inspired the two collections of sonnets which are his best, the Antiquités romaines, translated by Spenser in 1591, and the Regrets.
Works: Olive, Recueil de poésies, 1549; Premier livre des antiquités de Rome, 1558; Jeux rustiques, 1558; les Regrets, 1559 ; Oeuvres, 1569. Recent editions are : Oeuvres complètes, par Marty-Laveaux, 2 vols., 1866-67; Oeuvres choisies, par Becq de Fouquières, 1876.
For reference: Léon Séché, Joachim du Bellay, 1880; E. Faguet, le
Seizième siècle, 1893 ; Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux lundis, vol. xiii;
Walter Pater, The Renaissance, London, 1873.
13. L'IDÉAL. This is from the first collection of sonnets, Olive. The influence of Petrarch is evident. Compare also the lines of the sestet with the final stanzas of Lamartine's Isolement, p. 65. 22. En 1'eternel = dans l'éternité.
14. L'AMOUR DU CLOCHER. From the Regrets. 8. cestuy, old form of demonstrative, celui. The reference is of course to Jason. 9. USAGE, experience. 11. QUAND REVERRAY-JE, etc., cf. Homer's Odyssey, I, 58. 18. LOYRE, the name of the river is now feminine. 19. LIRÉ, a little village in Anjou, was the birth-place of du Bellay. D'UN VANNEUR DE BLÉ AUX VENTS. From the collection entitled Jeux rustiques.
15. 8. CESTE, cette. 10. J'AHANNE = je me fatigue.
AGRIPPA D'AUBIGNÉ.
1550-1630.
Soldier as well as poet, he was a leader of the Huguenots in the wars that ended with the accession of Henry IV. After the assassination of Henry IV., his safety became more and more threatened in France, and he withdrew finally to Geneva. His main work is a long descriptive and narrative poem, but in many parts essentially lyrical, les Tragiques, a fierce picture of France in the civil wars. In his lyrics, which comprise stances, odes, and élégies, he is a follower of the tradition of Ronsard.
Works: Les Tragiques, 1616; a recent edition is by L. Lalanne, 1857; also in the Oeuvres complètes, par MM. Reaume et de Caussade, 4 vols., 1873-77.