— Sir, my old friend : it is, said Aristophanes, an unbearable thing to serve a master who fears [everything]. Pastiching the above, it is a great misfortune to serve a mistress who has neither judgement nor understanding of our poetry, who does not realise that poets, principally in small, unimportant stuff like elegies, epigrams and sonnets, have no regard for order or time: that’s a matter for writers of history, who write everything as if threaded with a needle. I beg you, Sir, not to believe Madame de Surgeres in that matter, and not to add or take away anything from my sonnets, please. If she does not find them good, then let her ignore them, it’s no skin off my nose. They say the King is coming to Blois and Tours, and for that reason I am running off to Paris and will be there very shortly, for I hate the court like death itself. If she wants to create some design in marble for the fountain, she may do so, but these are the plans of women which last but a day, who by their nature are so miserly that they don’t want to spend a penny on some good deed. Let her see this letter if you think that’s a good idea. I kiss your hands in all affection. From your Croixval, the fifth of July. Your humble old friend, at your service. I do like seeing how Ronsard wrote when he was, simply, writing. This is not for publication or print, just a letter to a friend. The letter was found and first printed in 1923 by Nolhac, as one of “Deux lettres retrouvées de Ronsard”, ‘Two re-discovered letter of Ronsard’. The connections in the thought jump around rather more – though we occasionally see that in the sonnets! – and so it’s not entirely obvious whether the second half of the letter is further insulting Hélène, or whether his barbs are aimed at someone else. (Grammatically, but not logically, the ‘she’ could even be the royal court (“la court”, which he hates in the previous sentence). It is nevertheless surprising to see quite so dismissive and insulting a tone in Ronsard’s references to Hélène, after reading all those love poems: a salutary reminder that the poems are, indeed, literature and we should not read too much biography into them. The reference to hating court life also needs to be taken in context – though knowing the date of the letter would help in that regard. It is certainly late, as most of Ronsard’s Croixval letters seem to date from 1582-1584, in the few years before his death. But Gadoffre dates this one 1577, without explanation. It could be from just before publication of the Helen sonnets in 1578, but perhaps is more likely to be at a time when a new edition is being prepared. Whether in the 1570s or the 1580s, Ronsard was by then old, ill, and out of favour at court, hence perhaps the bitterness. Knowing who the letter is addressed to might also be relevant. It’s addressed Sainte-Marthe is probably Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, the poet (born 1536) not the historian & philosopher, born 1571 and of course far too young to be a correspondent of Ronsard’s). The letter seems to imply that Sainte-Marthe may have been preparing an edition, hence able to add or delete poems. Unfortunately there is no evidence, as far as I know, that he was: it was Gabriel Buon who published the collected works in 1584 and subsequently (as well as the 1578 set), and they contain no commentary on the Helen sonnets like that of Muret on Cassandre which might evidence the input of Sainte-Marthe. So, in the end, this doesn’t help to date the letter to the first or a subsequent edition. (Incidentally, why ‘your Croixval’? Croixval is near Ronsard’s favourite Gastine forest, and the Loir valley. His links with the priory at Croix-Val or Croixval date to 1566 when he acquired it, after his brother inherited the family home at La Poissonnière. He spent much of the years 1578-1583 in retirement there. The building still stands: images are here. All this links Croixval to Ronsard; but not to Sainte-Marthe. I have not seen the original letter, but I would postulate that this is a mis-reading of a ‘v’ for an ‘n’, and that Ronsard wrote “nostre Croixval”, ‘my Croixval’.) Finally, just to note that reference to his sonnets etc as ‘small, unimportant stuff’. Self-deprecation is something Ronsard does well; and he uses it here (of course) as part of his weaponry in the attack on Hélène. He doesn’t really think they’re unimportant; but she appears to, even while being upset that some of them are recycled…Monsieur mon antien amy, c’est, disoit Aristophane, un faix insuportable de servir un maistre qui radoute. Parodizant la dessus, c’est un grand malheur de servir une maistresse, qui n’a jugement ny raison en nostre poësie, qui ne sçait pas que les poëtes, principallement en petis et menus fatras come elegies, epigrames et sonnetz, ne gardent ny ordre ny temps, c’est affaire aux historiographes qui escrivent tout de fil en eguille. Je vous suplie, Monsieur, ne vouloir croire en cela Mademoiselle de Surgeres et n’ajouter ny diminuer rien de mes sonnetz, s’il vous plait. Si elle ne les trouve bons, qu’elle les laisse, je n’ay la teste rompue d’autre chose. On dit que le Roy vient à Blois et à Tours, et pour cela je m’enfuy à Paris et y seray en bref, car je hay la court comme la mort. Si elle veult faire quelque dessaing de marbre sur la fonteine, elle le pourra faire, mais ce sont délibérations de femmes, qui ne durent qu’un jour, qui de leurs natures sont si avares qu’elles ne voudroyent pas despendre un escu pour un beau fait. Faittes luy voir cette lettre si vous le trouvez bon. Je vous baize les mains de toute affection. De vostre Croixval, ce cinquiesme de juillet. Vostre humble et antien amy à vous servir.
Jan29
A letter about the Helen sonnets
A little of Ronsard’s prose for a change – and ‘natural’ prose rather than literary prose. I mentioned recently that a lot of the Helen sonnets had already appeared in print before the Helen books – sonnets 18-25 and 41 in book one, and sonnets 21-37 and 61-64 in book two (at least) had been printed in the ‘Amours diverses’. That’s about 30 from 140, just over 20% – though nearly a third of the sonnets in book two … It seems that Hélène complained! (Perhaps that’s not a surprise.) Whether she was irritated simply that they were not new, or that they were not written expressly for her, or that they had been addressed to other ladies, we do not know. But she apparently asked for them to be removed and/or alternative poems added. Ronsard responds dismissively: his point, in a nutshell, is that a book of poems is literature first of all, not a historical record, and art not literal historical truth is what must shape the contents.
Oeuvres de Ronsard 