1525-1560.
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_.