RONSARD, Peter de, a French poet, was born at the castle of Poissoniere in Vendomois in 1524. He was descended of a noble family, and was educated at Paris in the college of Navarre. Academical pursuits not suiting his genius, he left college, and became page to the duke of Orleans, who resigned him to James Stuart, king of Scots, married to Magdalene of France. Ronsard continued in Scotland with King James upwards of two years, and afterwards went to France, where he was employed by the duke of Orleans in several negotiations. He accompanied Lazarus de Baif to the diet of Spires. Having from the conversation of this learned man imbibed a passion for the belles-lettres, he studied the Greek language with Baif’s son under Dorat. It is reported of Ronsard, that his practice was to study till two o’clock in the morning; and when he went to bed, to awaken Baif, who resumed his place. The muses possessed in his eyes an infinity of charms; and he cultivated them with such success, that he acquired the appellation of the Prince of Poets of his time. Henry II. Francis II. Charles IX. and Henry III. loaded him with favours. Having gained the first prize of the Jeux Floraux, they thought the reward promised below the merit of the work, and the reputation of the poet. The city of Toulouse caused a Minerva of massy silver of considerable value to be made and sent to him. This present was accompanied with a decree, declaring him The French Poet, by way of distinction. Ronsard afterwards made a present of his Minerva to Henry II., and this monarch appeared as much eluted with this mark of the poet’s esteem for him, as the poet himself could have been had he received the present from his sovereign. Mary, the beautiful and unfortunate queen of Scots, who was equally sensible of his merit with the Toulonese, gave him a rich set of table-plate.

He wrote hymns, odes, a poem called the Franciad, eclogues, epigrams, sonnets, &c. In his odes he takes bombast for poetic raptures. He wishes to imitate Pindar; and by labouring too much for lofty expressions, he loses himself in a cloud of words. He is obscure and harsh to the last degree; faults which he might easily have avoided by studying the works of Marot, who had, before he wrote, brought French poetry very near to perfection. But what could be expected from a man who had so little taste, that he called Marot’s works, ‘ a dunghill, from which rich grains of gold, by industrious working, might be drawn ?’ He has, however, some pieces not destitute of real merit; and there are perhaps few effusions of the French muse more truly poetical than his Four Seasons of the Year, where a most fertile imagination displays all its riches. Ronsard, though it is doubtful whether he ever was in orders, held several benefices in commendam; and he died at Saint-Cosme-les-Tours, one of these, December 27, 1585, being then 61 years of age. He appeared more ridiculous as a man than as a poet; he was particularly vain, and his immoderate indulgence in pleasure, joined to his literary labours, served to hasten his old age. In his 50th year he was weak and valetudinary, and subject to attacks of the gout. He retained his wit, his vivacity, and his readiness at poetic composition, to his last moments. Ronsard’s poems have been published in folio, in quarto, and in 10 volumes duodecimo, in 1567.