Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T21:12:56.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lyric Economies: Manufacturing Values in French Petrarchan Collections (1549–60)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Cécile Alduy*
Affiliation:
Stanford University

Abstract

Between 1549 and 1560, French Petrarchan sonnet sequences proliferated in the wake of Du Bellay's Defense and Illustration of the French Tongue and Ronsard's Amours. Yet this proliferation relied on a remarkable economy of means, in large part due to the constant recycling of metaphors, tropes, and forms. In fact, the genre can be read as a cost-efficient system that addressed the economic anxiety of a generation of poets caught between the aspiration to impose the autonomy of their art and their social dependence on a patron. It also preemptively solved the potential credit crisis that could have resulted from having had to borrow from the Italians in order to establish a new French canon. Looking at Ronsard, Du Bellay, and Ellain, this essay examines French Petrarchan collections as complex lyric economies that manufacture and negotiate aesthetic, literary, monetary, and national values.

Type
Studies
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to express my gratitude to William J. Kennedy, whose conference Petrarch as Homo Economicus (2004) gave a decisive impulse to the line of thought developed in the present essay; to Roland Greene and Timothy Hampton for their inspiring remarks; and to the early modern group at Stanford University. A modified version of this paper was presented at The Renaissance Society of America annual conference in San Francisco, March 2006, under the title “The Economy of Praise: Dispositio and Retribution in French Love Sonnet Collections.” All translations are mine except where otherwise noted.

References

Alduy, Cécile.. “L'Arbre et la Branche: croissance du recueil et défense de la langue française dans L'Olive (1549–1550).”. n Joachim Du Bellay: une révolution poétique dans les années 1549–1550. ed. , Roger-Vasselin, B.. 35. ndash; 57. Paris. 2007a .Google Scholar
Alduy, Cécile.. Politique des “Amours”: Poétique et genèse d'un genre français nouveau (1544–1560). Geneva, 2007b.Google Scholar
Baïf, Jean-Antoine de Les Amours de Jan Antoinede Baïf. Paris: Humor de La Porte, 1552.Google Scholar
Baïf, Jean-Antoine de Quatre Livres de L'amourde Francine, par Jan Antoine de Baïf, à Jacques Cottier,parisien. Paris: Wechel, 1555.Google Scholar
Baïf, Jean-Antoine de “Amymone.”In Œuvres en rime de Jan Antoine deBaïf, secrétaire de la chambre du Roy. 2 vols. Paris: Breyer, 1572–73.Google Scholar
Baker, Deborah The Subject of Desire: PetrarchanPoetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labé. West Lafayette, 1996.Google Scholar
Balsamo, Jean Les Rencontres des muses:italianisme et anti-italianisme dans les lettres françaisesde la fin du XVIe. iècle. Geneva, 1992.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frederic France in the Sixteenth Century. New York, 1995.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre Ce que parler veut dire:l'économie des échanges linguistiques. Paris, 1982.Google Scholar
Brown, Cynthia Poets, Patrons and Printers:Crisis of Authority in Late Medieval France. Ithaca, 1995.Google Scholar
Cave, Terence “La Muse publicitairedans les Odes de 1550.”In Ronsard en son IVe. entenaire: Ronsard hier et aujourd'hui, ed. , Bellenger, Yvonne, , Céard, Jean, and , Ménager, Daniel, 1:916. Geneva, 1988.Google Scholar
Cave, Terence Pré-histoires I: Textestroublés au seuil de la modernité. Geneva, 1999.Google Scholar
Cave, Terence Pré-histoires II:Langues étrangères et troubles économiques auXVIe. iècle. Geneva, 2001.Google Scholar
Cuvelier, Eliane “Thomas Lodge, censeurde l'usure.”In L'Or au temps de la Renaissance: Du mythe à l'économie, ed. , Jones-Davies, Marie-Thérèse, 6778. Paris, 1978.Google Scholar
Davis, Natalie Zemon The Gift in Sixteenth-CenturyFrance. Madison, 2000.Google Scholar
DellaNeva, JoAnn “Du Bellay: Reader ofScève, Reader of Petrarch.” Romanic Review 79.3(1988): 401–1.Google Scholar
Desan, Philippe “La richesse des mots:mercantilisme linguistique à la Renaissance.” Stanford French Review 15.3(1991): 297322.Google Scholar
Desan, Philippe L'Imaginaire économiquede la Renaissance. Orléans, 1993.Google Scholar
Du Bellay, Joachim La Deffence, et illustrationde la lange françoise. Paris: l'Angelier, 1549a.Google Scholar
Du Bellay, Joachim L'Olive et quelquesautres œuvres poétique. Le contenu de ce livre: cinquantesonnetz à la louange de l'Olive, l'Antérotiquede la veille et de la jeune amye. Vers lyriques, par J.D.B.A. Paris: l'Angelier, 1549b.Google Scholar
Du Bellay, Joachim L'Olive augmentee depuisla premiere edition. La Musagnoeomachie et aultres œuvres poëtiques. Paris: Corrozet and l'Angelier, 1550.Google Scholar
Du Bellay, Joachim L'Olive. Ed. , Caldarini, Ernesta Geneva, 1974.Google Scholar
Du Bellay, Joachim Les Regrets. Ed. , Chamard, Henri 1909. Reprint, Paris, 2000.Google Scholar
Du Bellay, Joachim La Deffence, et illustrationde la langue françoyse. Ed. , Monferran, Jean-Charles Geneva, 2007.Google Scholar
Du Moulin, Charles Tractatus commerciorum etusurarum redituumquepecunia constitutorum et monetarum: cum noua &analytica explicatione. . . . Paris, 1546.Google Scholar
Du Moulin, Charles Summaire du liure analytiquedes contractz, vsures, rentes constituées, interestz, &monnoyes. Paris, 1547.Google Scholar
Ellain, Nicolas Les Sonnets de Nicolas Ellain,Parisien. Paris: Sertenas, 1561.Google Scholar
Ellain, Nicolas Œuvres poétiquesfrançoises. Ed. , Genty, Achille 1861. Reprint, Geneva, 1969.Google Scholar
Estienne, Henri Traicté de la conformitédu langage François avec le grec. 1565. Reprint, Paris, 1853.Google Scholar
Estienne, Henri Precellence du langage françois. Paris, 1579.Google Scholar
Fineman, Joel Shakespeare's PerjuredEye: The Invention of Poetic Subjectivity in the Sonnets. Berkeley, 1986.Google Scholar
Forster, Leonard The Icy Fire: Five Studiesin European Petrarchism. London, 1969.Google Scholar
Fragonard, Marie-Madeleine “Ronsard en poète:portrait d'auteur, produit du texte.” Littérales 26(2000): 1541.Google Scholar
Freccero, Carla “Economy, Woman, andRenaissance Discourse.”In Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance, ed. , Migiel, Mand , Schiesari, J, 192208. Ithaca. 1991.Google Scholar
Gieske, Edward “‘Honesty and VulgarPraise’: The Poet's War and the Literary Field.” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 18(2005): 75103.Google Scholar
Godelier, Maurice L’Énigme dudon. Paris, 1996.Google Scholar
Greene, Roland Post-Petrarchism: Originsand Innovations of the Western Lyric Sequence. Princeton, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, Roland Unrequited Conquests: Loveand Empire in the Colonial Americas. Chicago, 1999.Google Scholar
Grévin, Jacques L'Olimpe de Jaques Grévin,de Clermont en Beauvaisis. Ensemble les autres euvres poëtiquesdudict auteur. Paris, 1560.Google Scholar
Hamon, Philippe L'Argent du Roi: Lesfinances sous François 1er.. Paris, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hampton, Timothy “‘Trafiquer LaLouange’: L’économie de la poésie dans les Regrets.”In Du Bellay et ses sonnets romains: études sur. esRegrets et. es Antiquitez De Rome, ed. , Bellenger, Yvonneand , Balsamo, Jean, 4760. Paris, 1994.Google Scholar
Hampton, Timothy Literature and Nation inthe Sixteenth Century: Inventing Renaissance France. Ithaca, 2001.Google Scholar
Helgerson, Richard Self-Crowned Laureates: Spenser,Johnson, Milton, and the Literary System. Berkeley, 1983.Google Scholar
Ingram, Jill Phillips Idioms of Self-Interest:Credit, Identity, and Property in English Renaissance Literature. New York, 2006.Google Scholar
Jones, Ann Rosalind The Currency of Eros: Women'sLove Lyric in Europe, 1540–1620. Bloomington, 1990.Google Scholar
Joukovsky, Françoise “‘Bellai summosinter celebrande poetas’: Les Élégies. t les Sonnets. e Nicolas Ellain.” Œuvre & Critiques 20.1(1995): 165–3.Google Scholar
Kennedy, William Authorizing Petrarch. Ithaca, 1994.Google Scholar
Kennedy, William The Site of Petrarchism:Early Modern National Sentiment in Italy, France, and England. Baltimore, 2003.Google Scholar
Kennedy, William “Petrarch as Homo Economicus:Interest, Growth, Rime sparse, and the Futures of Later Petrarchismin Ronsard and Shakespeare.” Lecture, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, October 28, 2004.Google Scholar
Kritzman, Lawrence The Rhetoric of Sexualityand the Literature of the French Renaissance. Cambridge, 1991.Google Scholar
Le Caron, Louis La Poesie de Louis Le CaronParisien. Paris: Sertenas, 1554.Google Scholar
Magny, Olivier de Les Amours d'Olivierde Magny. Paris: Sertenas, 1553.Google Scholar
Marot, Clément Œuvres complètesde Clément Marot. Ed. , Defaux, Gérard 2 vols. Paris, 1993.Google Scholar
Marotti, Arthur “Love Is Not Love: ElizabethanSonnet Sequences and the Social Order.” English Literary History 49(1982): 396428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marotti, Arthur Manuscript, Print and theEnglish Renaissance. Ithaca, 1995.Google Scholar
Mauss, Marcel Essai sur le don: Forme etraison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques.”In Sociologie et anthropologie, 143249. Paris, 1950.Google Scholar
Murphy, Stephen The Gift of Immortality:Myths of Power and Humanist Poetics. London, 1997.Google Scholar
Paré, François “L’Écriturede l’échange économique dans les Regrets. e Du Bellay.” Renaissanceand Reformation 9.4(1985): 255–2.Google Scholar
Peletier du Mans, Jacques L'Amour des amours. Lyon: de Tournes, 1555.Google Scholar
Peletier du Mans, Jacques Dialogue de l'orthographeet prononciation française (1555). Ed. , Porter, Lambert C Geneva, 1966.Google Scholar
Peletier du Mans, Jacques . i>L'Art Poétique.. In Traités de poétiqueet de rhétorique de la Renaissance, ed. , Goyet, Francis, 237344. Paris, 1990.Google Scholar
Perrier, Simone “La transaction poétiquechez Ronsard.”In Or,monnaie, échange dans la culture de la Renaissance, ed. , Tournon, André, Perouse, Gabriel-André, 199212. Saint-Etienne, 1994.Google Scholar
Posselt, Gerald “The Tropological Economyof Catachresis.”In Metaphors of Economy, ed. , Bracker, N, Herbrechter, S, 8194. Amsterdam, 2005.Google Scholar
Quainton, Malcolm “The Liminary Texts ofRonsard's Amours de Cassandre. 1552): Poetics,Erotics, Semiotics.” French Studies 53.3(1999): 257–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renaud, Nicolas Les Chastes Amours, Ensembleles chansons d'amour de N. Renaud, Gentilhomme Provençal. Paris: Brumen, 1565.Google Scholar
Rieger, Angelica “L'image de Pétrarquedans l'iconographie: France XVe. t XVIe. iècle.”In Dynamique d'une expansion culturelle: Pétrarque en Europe,XIVe. ndash;XXe. iècles, ed. , Blanc, Pierre, 99125. Paris, 2001.Google Scholar
Roche, Thomas Petrarch and the EnglishSonnet Sequence. New York, 1989.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de Les quatre premiers Livresdes Odes de Pierre de Ronsard, Vandomois. Ensemble son Bocage. Paris: Cavellart, 1550.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de Les Amours de Pierre de RonsardVandomoys. Ensemble le cinquiesme de ses Odes. Paris: Veuve de La Porte, 1552.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard. . . nouvellement augmentées par lui, et commentéespar Marc-Antoine de Muret. Plus quelques odes de l'auteur, nonencor imprimées. Paris: Veuve de La Porte, 1553.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de Continuation des Amours dePierre de Ronsard. Paris: Sertenas, 1555.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de Nouvelle continuation desAmours de Pierre de Ronsard Vendomois. Paris: Sertenas, 1556.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de . i>La Franciade.. In Les Œuvres dePierre de Ronsard gentilhomme Vandomois. Paris, 1572.Google Scholar
Ronsard, Pierre de Œuvres complètes. Ed. , Laumonier, Paul 20 vols. 1914–75. Reprint, Paris, 1982.Google Scholar
Scève, Maurice Delie object de plus haultevertu. Paris: Constantin, 1544.Google Scholar
Scève, Maurice Microcosme. Lyon: de Tournes, 1564.Google Scholar
Sébillet, Thomas “Art poétiquefrançais, pour l'instruction des jeunes studieus, et encorepeu avancés en la Poésie française (1548).”In Traités de poétique etde rhétorique de la Renaissance, ed. , Goyet, Francis, 37183. Paris, 1990.Google Scholar
Shell, Marc The Economy of Literature. Baltimore, 1993.Google Scholar
Thireau, Jean-Louis Charles Du Moulin (1500–1566):Étude sur les sources, la méthode, les idéespolitiques et économiques d'un juriste de la Renaissance. Geneva, 1980.Google Scholar
Trudeau, Danielle “Little Language Factories:Printers’ Workshops in the Sixteenth Century.” Stanford French Review 9.2(1992): 139–6.Google Scholar
Tyard, Pontus de Erreurs amoureuses. 1549. Lyon: de Tournes, 1555.Google Scholar
Tyard, Pontus de Œuvres poétiquescomplètes. Ed. , Lapp, John C Paris, 1966.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel The Modern World-System:Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economyin the Sixteenth Century. New York, 1974.Google Scholar
Warley, Christopher Sonnet Sequences and SocialDistinction in Renaissance England. Cambridge, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar