page_title: Writers in Paris
section_title: 16th Century – Rabelais and Ronsard
hierarchical_section_title: Writers in Paris / 16th Century – Rabelais and Ronsard
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Porträt Pierre de Ronsards, Öl auf Leinwand, Musée des Beaux-arts, Blois English: Portrait of Pierre de Ronsard, oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-arts, Blois Français&#160;: Portrait de Pierre de Ronsard, huile sur toile, Musée des Beaux-arts, Blois
context_page_description: For centuries Paris has been the home and frequently the subject matter of the most important novelists, poets, and playwrights in French literature, including Moliere, Voltaire, Balzac, Victor Hugo and Zola and Proust. Paris also was home to major expatriate writers from around the world, including Henry James, Ivan Turgenev, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Leopold Senghor, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Milan Kundera. Few of the writers of Paris were actually born in Paris; they were attracted to the city first because of its university, then because it was the center of the French publishing industry, home of the major French newspapers and journals, of its important literary salons, and the company of the other writers, poets, and artists.
context_section_description: The most prominent Paris novelist of the period was François Rabelais (1494–1553) best known for his novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, which gave the word "Gargantuan" to the English language.  He was admired by King Francis I, who protected him while he was alive, but after the King's death Rabelais and his works were condemned by the University of Paris and the Parlement of Paris, and he only survived because of the protection of high figures at court.  He spent much of his life far from the city, but died in Paris.
  The most prominent poet was Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585), from an aristocratic family of the Vendôme region.  He settled in the Latin quarter, studied briefly at the College of Navarre, then became a Page to the Dauphin, the eldest son of Francis I. His first poem was published in 1547 by one of the many small publishing houses that had appeared around the University. He formed a literary circle with Joachim du Bellay and a group of other poets, and published a series of books of poetry on love and romance and a volume of erotic poems. The latter volume, Les Folastries,  caused a scandal, and the Parlement of Paris ordered that all the copies be burned.  Despite this (or because of this), Ronsard was a favorite of the Court during the reigns of Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III.  He gave poetry-writing lessons to Charles IX.  However, by 1574 and the reign of Henry III,  as the wars of religion began, his poetry was less in royal favor. He continued to write peacefully within the Collège de Boncourt, attached to the Collège de Navarre, until his last days.
  Many of his poems had Paris settings; one poem from Sonnets pour Hélène, was set in the new Tuileries gardens, created by Catherine de' Medici:
  "Quand je pense à ce jour où, pres d'une fontaine,
  Dans le jardin royal ravi de ta douceur
  Amour te decouvrit les secrets de mon coeur;
  Et de combien de maux j'avais mon âme pleine..."
  (When I think of that day when, near a fountain in the royal garden, enchanted by your gentleness.
  Love revealed to you the secrets of my heart, 
  And how much pain had filled my soul...)
caption: Pierre de Ronsard (1620 portrait by unknown artist)
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