Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585)

[Cassandra (Fyfieldbooks)] by Pierre de Ronsard, translated by Clive Lawrence.
Pierre de Ronsard (1524-85) French renaissance man was the leader of a group of poets labelled The Brigade (Pléaide), whose aim was to revolutionise the poetry of his recent past. Rejecting the French literary tastes of the time he turned instead to classical and Italian poetic models, using powerful imagery, some from from ancient mythology, to make them his own. His output was prolific but today he is remembered show more mainly for his love poetry and Les Amours de Cassandra was his first collection. There are 228 sonnets, three songs, three elegies and a couple of other poems all about a love affair that was never consummated.

For a poet who set out to change the face of French poetry it would seem curious he would choose to base this sequence of poems on the traditions of Petrarch the leading Italian Renaissance poet who lived over 200 years earlier. Petrarch’s most famous collection is the Canzoniere a collection of 366 poems many of which are in sonnet form concerning his unrequited love affair with Laura; and so for Laura we could substitute Cassandra in Ronsard’s collection. Therefore there are some striking similarities enhanced by the fact that Ronsard used the Petrarchan rhyming scheme and sonnet form and so we must ask ourselves what if anything did Ronsard add to the mixture or how did he make his sequence different from Petrarch’s earlier masterpiece.

The first thing that is evident is that Ronsard uses an overlay of classical mythology to many of the sonnets. He has chosen the name Cassandra who was a figure in the mythology of the Trojan Wars and in some of the sonnets her story in those wars are referenced to the speaker (Ronsard’s) own battles with his love for Cassandra. Other hero’s from Greek mythology also make an appearance and serve to link many of the poems to the classical tradition. In later editions of the poetry; notes to help readers through some of the classical references were added. Secondly although Ronsard’s affair with Cassandra was never consummated he gets much closer to her than Petrarch ever got to Laura. Petrarch’s poems were very much in the tradition of fine d’amours; a courtiers expression of love for an idyllic presence. While Petrarch is content to worship the ground on which Laura walks Ronsard gets more up close and personal with Cassandra: he has conversations with her, erotic dreams and on one occasion even a kiss. Thirdly Ronsard’s poems are much more securely placed in the natural world. He uses the countryside around Vendome to provide an added dimension to the sonnets. The river Loire is a powerful source and metaphor to much that is going on in the mind and heart of the poet, flowing water, the changing seasons are reflected in the poets changing moods. While Petrarch certainly has his moments of doubt and pain in his futile chase after Laura, Ronsard is not above feeling bitter, even hostile in the face of Cassandra’s continued rejection of his suite.

Both Laura and Cassandra have been identified as real people. Petrarch courted his Laura from the first moment that he saw her (as did Ronsard his Cassandra) and continued to be in love with her even after she died; at least a third of the collection focuses on his longing to join her in some sort of afterlife. Ronsard’s courting of Cassandra seems to have lasted for about seven years and he was apparently a bit sniffy about Petrarch love affair saying that he should have moved on. Ronsard certainly moved on writing two more amours collections to Marie and Helen respectively.

Comparing the two collections which I was bound to do, I find that each have their own qualities. Overall Petrarchs Canzioniere have a more gentle dream like quality although as a reader we are left in no doubt of the passion that the poet is feeling. He seems to be continually begging for our sympathy - woe is me to be suffering the pangs of love and suffering them so deeply that his very life seems to be in danger. Ronsard on the other hand never seems to be so overcome that he is in danger of destroying himself, even in his darkest moments he is optimistic of success and enjoys to some extent the pains that he is suffering. In both collections the poets lurch from optimism to extreme pessimism almost from sonnet to sonnet, but Ronsard is more inclined to see some cruelty in the way he is treated and he is in some respects more down to earth.

The fourteen line sonnet with its twists and turns and sometimes pithy final lines or couplets is one of my favourite poetic forms. However reading so many (in both collections) without any story development can be a strain on concentration. It is inevitable that some individual poems will stand out while many of them will sound similar with only minor variations on a theme. Both collections do fall into the trap of seeming to be repetitious and yet there is usually something to hold the attention, this is probably more true of the Cassandra collection.

I read Les Amours de Cassandra in a translation by Clive Lawrence who admits to sacrificing a little accuracy in his attempts to follow the rhyming scheme of the original French. I also had the Gallimard modern French translation when I thought it necessary to get nearer to the original. I think that Clive Lawrence does an excellent job with his translation and his introduction is informative and lively and so 4.5 stars.

Here is a sonnet from the collection by Ronsard translated by Clive Lawrence

Against my will, your eyes’ spellbinding light
Overpowers my soul, and when I speak
Of how I’m dying, all you do is shake
With Laughter - my disease is your delight.

At least, since nothing better will requite
My love, let me sigh as my life’s strings break.
Your fine eyes’ gross pride ties me to a stake,
Without your laughing at my careworn state.

To mock my lost health, laugh at all my pain,
Double my wretchedness with blithe disdain,
Hate one who loves you and live on the sounds

Of pain he utters; to break faith, breach duty -
Ah, can’t you see how that, my cruel beauty,
Is to smear blood and murder on your hands? show less

Wow! Where should we start? Ronsard's impact upon French poetry is immense! Whereas before him poetry was just a silly pastime, and poets just court jesters ('troubadours') whose role was to entertain the wealthy, Ronsard will take the art very seriously. Spearheading Renaissance in France, he will in fact toss away the Medieval poetical forms then 'en vogue' (eg lai, virelai, rondel...) to import instead the odes, the epics, the epigrams, and other classical forms usually associated with show more Greco-Roman Antiquity.

More than that: at a time when French was not even a national language, but a patchwork of patois and dialects looked upon by the intellectuals and the scholars (how could it even compete with Latin or Ancient Greek!?) Ronsard will dare to do the unthinkable: write in French. At the head of the Brigade, a gang of like-minded poets and intellectuals then eager to gather around him (we now know them as the Pléiade) he thus triggered a movement that would ultimately lead to French establishing itself as a national language, what Chaucer will do with English, or Dante with Italian.

What about his poetry, then?

Ronsard was a court page, so, unsurprisingly, in this selection are some writings about politics; especially the tumultuous events then shattering France. The country was indeed at a throat of an intense quarrels between Catholics and Protestants that will all turn out very bloody (think of the Saint Bartholomew's Massacre...) and, as a Catholic, although he may have been critical of the Church, he therefore didn't shy away from defending his catholic faith. He had, to say the least, no sympathy for Protestants; as reading his 'Discourse on the Miseries of the Time' makes it quite clear:

'What? Burning houses, plundering and pillaging, killing, assassinating and dominating by force, no longer obeying Kings, raising armies, is this what you called reformed Churches?'

However, here's not the reason why he still is remembered and admired as one of the greatest. Ronsard, contributing to popularise the sonnet in France, in fact made himself a master on sonnets and its expected yet perfectly suited topic: love. Three women would be his 'muses' during the course of his life (Helene, Cassandre, Marie), and he will indeed write some of the most beautiful love poems ever written to all three of them.

'every girl, even if she longs for the game of love, desires to be ravished.'

'Time passes, time passes, my Lady; alas! not time, but we, we pass away, and soon we should be stretched out beneath a tombstone;
and when we are dead, no more will be heard of the love we are speaking of; therefore love me, while you are still beautiful.'

'is it not lunacy to write of Love? They put handcuffs on lunatics who are not as raving mad as I am.'

A poet that definitely worth a read! show less

Described as a new dual-language edition. What you get is the original poems set out in 16th century French with a prose translation underneath. Therefore to get the most out of this volume you will need some understanding of the French language. I do like the fact that the prose translation appears always on the same page as the poetry which enables the reader easily to check the translation at a glance. There is a good introduction and plenty of notes on each of the poems and even a short show more essay on how to read French poetry. A glossary of names and places and a chronology of contexts completes a well thought out publication.

The selections seem to cover most aspects of Ronsards poetry. There are of course examples from his three Livres de Amours, odes and elegies, however what I found most fascinating were selections from his hymns. These cover Ronsards view on his inpiration, his fame, his place in history etc, however in Les Daimons he speaks of the popularly held belief in the sphere of the demons and how they influence peoples lives on earth. There are extracts from the political poems and finally poems dictated when he was on his death bed.

The selection leads you to want to read more as you appreciate Ronsards scope and breadth. He could be bawdy, fair minded, political and he wrote some beautiful lyrical poetry. He also had a wicked sense of humour. A brilliant mind and well represented in these poems. 4 stars. show less

En los "Sonetos para Helena" Ronsard compuso su gran obra de madurez, una admirable síntesis de depurada belleza y melancolía otoñal que no ha dejado de conmover a muchas generaciones de lectores. Sintiéndose viejo y achacoso, fracasado también ante el triunfo cortesano de un rival poético más joven, Ronsard dedica estos versos a la enigmática Helena de Surgères, de la que sólo tenemos noticias contradictorias; tal vez idealizando su figura, quizás incluso inventando un amor en show more torno al cual traza sutiles arabescos de palabras. Tanto da, en cualquier caso, utilizando como pretexto el mito petrarquista de la amada joven, bella y esquiva, siempre inasequible, nos habla del amor y de la primavera desde la soledad y desde el otoño; y sus sonetos son una de las mayores obras de arte de la literatura lírica del siglo XVI. show less