French Renaissance literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in French (Middle French) from the French invasion of Italy in 1494 to 1600, or roughly the period from the reign of Charles VIII of France to the ascension of Henry IV of France to the throne. The reigns of Francis I (from 1515 to 1547) and his son Henry II (from 1547 to 1559) are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance. After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de' Medici and her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the French Wars of Religion between Huguenots and Catholics ravaged the country.
The word "Renaissance" The word Renaissance is a French word, whose literal translation into English is "Rebirth". The term was first used and definedMurray, P. and Murray, L. (1963) The Art of the Renaissance. London: Thames & Hudson (World of Art), p. 9. by French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) in his 1855 work Histoire de France (History of France).Michelet, Jules. History of France, trans. G. H. Smith (New York: D. Appleton, 1847) Michelet defined the 16th-century Renaissance in France as a period in Europe's cultural history that represented a break from the Middle Ages, creating a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world. As a French citizen and historian, Michelet also claimed the Renaissance as a French movement.Brotton, J., The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2006 . His work is at the origin of the use of the French word "Renaissance" in other languages.
Introduction The 16th century in France was a remarkable period of literary creation (the language of this period is called Middle French). The use of the printing press (aiding the diffusion of works by ancient Latin and Greek authors; the printing press was introduced in 1470 in Paris, and in 1473 in Lyon), the development of Renaissance humanism and Neoplatonism, and the discovery (through the wars in Italy and through Henry II's marriage with Catherine de' Medici) of the cultivated refinement of the Italian courts (Baldassare Castiglione's book The Courtier was also particularly important in this respect) would profoundly modify the French literary landscape and the mental outlook (or "mentalité") of the period. There is a slow evolution from the rude warrior class to a cultivated noble class (giving rise to the idea of the "honnête homme" in the 17th century). In all genres, there is a great interest in love (both physical and Platonic) and in psychological and moral analysis.
This period saw a proliferation of pamphlets, tracts, satires, and memoirs; the success of short-story collections ("nouvelles") as well as collections of oral tales and anecdotes ("propos" and "devis"); a public fascination with tragic tales from Italy (most notably those of Bandello); a considerable increase in the translating and publishing of contemporary European authors (especially Italians and Spaniards) compared to authors from the Middle Ages and classical antiquity; an important increase in the number of religious works sold (devotional books would exceed the "belles-lettres" as the most sold genre in France at the beginning of the 17th century); and finally, the publication of important works of moral and philosophical reflection.
The history of literature of the Renaissance is not monolithic: the royal court, the universities, the general public, the "noblesse de robe", the provincial noble, and the humanist all encountered different influences and developed different tastes. Humanist theater would come slowly to the general public; the old warrior class discovered court etiquette and polished manners only over time; and the extravagance of the Italian-inspired court was frequently criticized by detractors. Literacy itself is an important issue in the dissemination of the texts of the Renaissance: the culture of the 16th century remains profoundly oral, and the short story, the chivalric novel and Rabelais's works make this orality a central part of their style. Finally, the Renaissance book was a physical and economic object of great scarcity and – depending on its size and illustrations – of great prestige. A library such as Montaigne's was a rare occurrence for people other than lawyers and members of parliament who had had an elite education in the universities; for the public, the broadsheet or penny press (with woodcut illustrations) sold door to door by colporters would have been their only access to the written word.
Poetry Poetry in the first years of the 16th century is characterised by the elaborate sonorous and graphic experimentation and skillful word games of a number of Northern poets (such as Jean Lemaire de Belges and Jean Molinet), generally called "les Grands Rhétoriqueurs" who continued to develop poetic techniques from the previous century. Soon however, the impact of Petrarch (the sonnet cycle addressed to an idealised lover, the use of amorous paradoxes, like Jacques LeOriell (1498-1565) much practiced), Italian poets in the French court (like Luigi Alamanni), Italian Neoplatonism and humanism, and the rediscovery of certain Greek poets (such as Pindar and Anacreon) would profoundly modify the French tradition. In this respect, the French poets Clément Marot and Mellin de Saint-Gelais are transitional figures: they are credited with some of the first sonnets in French, but their poems continue to employ many of the traditional forms.
The new direction of poetry is fully apparent in the work of the humanist Jacques Peletier du Mans. In 1541, he published the first French translation of Horace's Ars poetica and in 1547 he published a collection poems Œuvres poétiques, which included translations from the first two cantos of Homer's Odyssey and the first book of Virgil's Georgics, twelve Petrarchan sonnets, three Horacian odes and a Martial-like epigram; this poetry collection also included the first published poems of Joachim Du Bellay and Pierre de Ronsard.
Around Ronsard, Du Bellay and Jean Antoine de Baïf there formed a group of radical young noble poets of the court (generally known today as La Pléiade, although use of this term is debated). The character of their literary program was given in Du Bellay's manifesto, the "Defense and Illustration of the French Language" (1549) which maintained that French (like the Tuscan of Petrarch and Dante) was a worthy language for literary expression and which promulgated a program of linguistic and literary production (including the imitation of Latin and Greek genres) and purification. For some of the members of the Pléiade, the act of the poetry itself was seen as a form of divine inspiration (see Pontus de Tyard for example), a possession by the muses akin to romantic passion, prophetic fervor or alcoholic delirium.
The forms that dominate the poetic production of the period are the Petrarchan sonnet (developed around an amorous encounter or an idealized woman) and the Horace/Anacreon ode (especially of the carpe diem – life is short, seize the day – variety). Ronsard also tried early on to adapt the Pindaric ode into French. Throughout the period, the use of mythology is frequent, but so too is a depiction of the natural world (woods, rivers). Other genres include the paradoxical encomium (such as Remy Belleau's poem praising the oyster), the "blason" of the female body (a poetic description of a body part), and propagandistic verse.
Du Bellay's greatest poems were written during his long stay in Rome; his discovery of the ruined city, dismay at the corruption of the Papal court and loneliness gave rise to a sonnet cycle of remarkable sadness and severity (partially inspired by Ovid's Tristia).
Although Ronsard attempted a long epic poem of the origins of the French monarchy entitled La Franciade (modeled on Virgil and Homer), this experiment was largely judged a failure, and he remains most remembered today for his various collections of Amours (or love poems), Odes and Hymnes.
Jacques Pelletier du Mans later encyclopedic collection L'Amour des amours, consisting of a sonnet cycle and a series of poems describing meteors, planets and the heavens, would influence the poets Jean Antoine de Baïf and Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (whose Semaine is a Baroque description of the creation of the world).
Several poets of the period – Jean Antoine de Baïf (who founded an "Académie de musique et de poésie" in 1570), Blaise de Vigenère and others – attempted to adapt into French the Latin, Greek or Hebrew poetic meters; these experiments were called "vers mesurés" and "prose mesuré" (for more, see the article "musique mesurée").
Although the royal court was the center of much of the century's poetry, Lyon, the second-largest city in France in the Renaissance, also had its poets and humanists, most notably Maurice Scève, Louise Labé, Olivier de Magny, and Pontus de Tyard. Scève's Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu, composed of 449 ten-syllable ten-line poems (dizains) and published with numerous engraved emblems, is exemplary in its use of amorous paradoxes and (often obscure) allegory to describe the suffering of a lover.
Similarly, Madeleine Des Roches and her daughter Catherine Des Roches were the center of a literary circle based in Poitiers between 1570 and 1587, and which included the poets Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Barnabé Brisson, René Chopin, Antoine Loisel, Claude Binet, Nicolas Rapin and Odet de Turnèbe.Simonin, 351.
Poetry at the end of the century was profoundly marked by the civil wars: pessimism, dourness and a call for retreat from the world predominate (as in Jean de Sponde). However, the horrors of the war were also to inspire one Protestant poet, Agrippa d'Aubigné, to write a brilliant poem on the conflict:Les Tragiques.
Principal French poetry collections published in the 16th century: Clément Marot Adolescence clémentine (1532) Various Blasons du corps féminin (1536) Clément Marot Psaumes (1541) – translation of the Psalms Maurice Scève Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu (1544) Pernette Du Guillet Rimes (1545) Jacques Peletier du Mans Œuvres poétiques (1547) Mellin de Saint-Gelais Œuvres (1547) Joachim du Bellay Olive (1549–50) and the manifesto "Défense et illustration de la langue française" (1549) Pierre de Ronsard Odes (1550) Pontus de Tyard Le Solitaire premier (1552) Jean Antoine de Baïf Les Amours (1552) Pierre de Ronsard Les Amours (1552) Pierre de Ronsard Hymnes (1555–1556) Jacques Peletier du Mans "L'Amour des amours" and a manual on poetic composition "Art poétique français" (1555) Louise Labé Œuvres (1555) Pontus de Tyard Livre de vers lyriques (1555) Jean Antoine de Baïf Amour de Francine (1555) Remy Belleau Petites inventions (1556) Joachim du Bellay Antiquités de Rome (1558) Joachim du Bellay Songe (1558) Joachim du Bellay Regrets (1558) Remy Belleau 'La Bergerie (1565–1572) Etienne de La Boétie Vers français (1571) Pierre de Ronsard La Franciade (1572) Philippe Desportes Premières œuvres (1573) Étienne Jodelle Œuvres et mélanges poétiques (1574) Agrippa d'Aubigné First draft of Les Tragiques (1575) Nicolas Rapin Les Plaisirs du gentilhomme champestre (1575) Remy Belleau Pierres précieuses (1576) Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas La Semaine (1578) Etienne de La Boétie Sonnets (1580) Jacques Peletier du Mans "Louanges" (1581) Jean Antoine de Baïf Chansonnettes mesurées (1586) Jean de Sponde Poèmes chrétiens (1588) Jean-Baptiste Chassignet Le Mépris de la vie (1594) Marc de Papillon Œuvres (1597) Jean de Sponde Poésies posthumes (1597) Jean de La Ceppède Les Théorèmes sur le Sacré Mystère de Nostre Rédemption, (two volumes; 1613 & 1622).
Long prose fiction