The Combative Text: Ronsard’s Poetics of Dissent (1562–1563)

In his introduction to Ronsard's political poetry of 1562-63, Paul Laumonier asks why France's most prominent court poet turned from pacificism to military propaganda at that point in his writing career. The anti-Protestant Discours des miseres de ce temps, Remonstrance au peuple de France, and Responce aux injures were all sparked by deeply personal interests, Laumonier argues. That is, in these poems Ronsard was defending his right to request and to receive material rewards from the Church in spite of mounting criticism by Protestants and reform-minded Catholics. The poet was also expressing the personal pain he had experienced upon witnessing and failing to prevent lootings and pillaging of Catholic churches in his native region. Such destruction was all the more unbearable for having been committed not only by heretic Frenchmen but by foreign mercenaries. (1) The dual menace of heresy and foreign influence (inevitably linked to Ancient and New World heathenism, in the sixteenth century) is what I propose to address in this essay. How does Ronsard's construction of the personal in his political poems articulate the poet's attachment to the past (regional nostalgia, greco-toman literary models) and his commitment to the future (promotion of the vernacular and of royal authority)? What role do foreign invaders play in the elaboration of Ronsard's textual persona? One may indeed read the political poems written by Ronsard between 1560 and 1563 as increasingly personal in nature. In the years immediately preceding the French wars of religion Ronsard had argued against armed conflict. His Elegie a G. des Autels, written in 1560, discouraged a policy of military action against Protestants, arguing instead in favor of diplomatic mediation. In 1562, however, the elegy was reprinted bearing textual additions in which Ronsard urged armed resistance against the Huguenot factions. The poet's political about-face becomes clear if one compares the two versions directly: (2) (1560) Ce n'est pas aujourd'huy que les Rois & les princes Ont besoing de garder par armes leurs provinces, Il ne faut acheter ny canons ny harnois, Mais il fault les garder seulement par la voix Car il fault desormais deffendre noz maisons, Non par le fer trenchant mais par vives raisons, Et courageusement noz ennemis abbatre Par les mesmes bastons dont ils nous veullent battre Ainsi que l'ennemy par livres a seduict Le peuple devoye qui faucement le suit, Il fault en disputant par livres le confondre, Par livres l'assaillir, par livres luy respondre (9-22) (1562). C'est donques aujourd'huy que les Roys & les Princes Ont besoin de garder par armes leurs provinces, Et contre leurs sujets opposer le harnois, Usant & de la force & de la douce voix, Car il faut desormais deffendre nos maisons, Et par le fer tranchant, et par vives raisons Et courageusement nos ennemis abbatre Par les mesmes bastons dont ils nous veullent battre. Ainsi que l'ennemy par livres a deduict Le peuple devoye qui faucement le suit, Il faut en disputant par livres le confondre, Par armes l'assaillir, par armes luy respondre (9-22) In 1562 and 1563, Ronsard's poetry is increasingly engage, that is, more overtly engaged with political issues of the day and more representative of the poet's personal concerns. For a court poet to write about current civil unrest was of course, in some measure, obligatory. His duty, in part, was to represent the interests of the monarchy. (3) A poet of renown such as Ronsard would bring all the rhetorical arsenal of the classical canon to bear on such an endeavor. Recent criticism of the Discours des miseres collection has focused on the diversity of oratorical registers deployed in these poems. (4) Ullrich Langer has argued that Ronsard's rhetorical construction of an Aristotelian/Ciceronian ethos, or ethical subjectivity in his political verse, helps the poet confront a national moral crisis as well as a precarious moment in his literary career. …