Le Voyage de Tours: ou, Les amoureux

The next 120 lines of the Voyage …

Six ans sont ja passez, toutefois dans l’oreille J’entens encor’ le son de ta voix nompareille, Qui me gaigna le coeur, et me souvient encor De ta vermeille bouche et de tes cheveux d’or, De ta main, de tes yeux, et si le temps qui passe A depuis desrobé quelque peu de leur grace, Helas je ne suis moins de leurs graces ravy Que je fus sur le Clain, le jour que je te vy Surpasser en beauté toutes les pastourelles, Que les jeunes pasteurs estimoient les plus belles. Car je n’ay pas esgard à cela que tu es, Mais à ce que tu fus, tant les amoureux traits Te graverent en moy, voire de telle sorte Que telle que tu fus telle au sang je te porte.   Dés l’heure que le cœur de l’œil tu me perças, Pour en sçavoir la fin je fis tourner le Sas Par une Janeton, qui au bourg de Crotelles Soit du bien, soit du mal, disoit toutes nouvelles.   Apres qu’elle eut trois fois craché dedans son sein, Trois fois esternué, elle prist du levain, Le retaste en ses doigts, et en fist une image Qui te sembloit de port de taille et de visage : Puis tournoyant trois fois, et trois fois marmonnant, De sa gertiere alla tout mon col entournant, Et me dit, Je ne tiens si fort de ma gertiere Ton col, que ta vie est de malheur heritiere, Captive de Francine, et seulement la mort Desnou’ra le lien qui te serre si fort : Et n’espere jamais de vouloir entreprendre D’eschauffer un glaçon qui te doit mettre en cendre.   Las! je ne la creu pas, et pour vouloir adonc En estre plus certain, je fis couper le jonc La veille de sainct Jean : mais je vy sur la place Le mien, signe d’ Amour, croistre plus d’une brasse, Le tien demeurer court, signe que tu n’avois Soucy de ma langueur, et que tu ne m’aimois, Et que ton amitié qui n’est point asseurée, Ainsi que le jonc court, est courte demeurée.   Je mis pour t’essayer encores davant-hier Dans le creux de ma main des fueilles de coudrier : Mais en tappant dessus, nul son ne me rendirent, Et flaques sans sonner sur la main me fanirent, Vray signe que je suis en ton amour moqué, Puis qu’en frapant dessus elles n’ont point craqué : Pour monstrer par effet que ton cœur ne craquette Ainsi que fait le mien d’une flame segrette.   O ma belle Francine, ô ma fiere, et pourquoy En dansant, de tes mains ne me prens-tu le doy ? Pourquoy lasse du bal entre ces fleurs couchée, N’ay-je sur ton giron ou la teste panchée, Ou mes yeux sur les tiens, ou ma bouche dessus Tes deux tetins de neige et d’yvoire conceus ? Te semblay-je trop vieil ? encor la barbe tendre Ne fait que commencer sur ma jouë à s’estendre, Et ta bouche qui passe en beauté le coural, S’elle veut me baiser, ne se fera point mal : Mais ainsi qu’un Lezard se cache sous l’herbette, Sous ma blonde toison cacheras ta languette : Puis en la retirant, tu tireras à toy Mon cœur, pour te baiser, qui sortira de moy.   Helas prens donc mon cœur, avecques ceste paire De ramiers que je t’offre, ils sont venus de l’aire De ce gentil ramier dont je t’avois parlé : Margot m’en a tenu plus d’une heure acollé, Les pensant emporter pour les mettre en sa cage. Mais ce n’est pas pour elle : et demain davantage Je t’en rapporteray, avecques un pinson Qui desja sçait par coeur une belle chanson, Que je fis l’autre jour dessous une aubespine, Dont le commencement est Thoinet et Francine. Hà, cruelle, demeure, et tes yeux amoureux Ne destourne de moy : hà je suis malheureux ! Car je cognois mon mal, et si cognois encore La puissance d’ Amour, qui le sang me devore. Sa puissance est cruelle, et n’a point d’autre jeu, Sinon de rebrusler nos cœurs à petit feu, Ou de les englacer, comme ayant pris son estre D’une glace ou d’un feu ou d’un rocher champestre. Ha ! que ne suis-je abeille, ou papillon, j’irois Maugré toy te baiser, et puis je m’assirois Sur tes tetins, afin de succer de ma bouche Ceste humeur qui te fait contre moy si farouche.   O belle au doux regard, Francine au beau sourcy, Baise-moy je te prie, et m’embrasses ainsy Qu’un arbre est embrassé d’une vigne bien forte. « Souvent un vain baiser quelque plaisir apporte. » Je meurs ! tu me feras despecer ce bouquet, Que j’ay cueilly pour joy, de Thym et de Muguet, Et de la rouge-fleur qu’on nomme Cassandrette, Et de la blanche-fleur qu’on appelle Olivette, A qui Bellot donna et la vie et le nom, Et de celle qui prend de ton nom son surnom.   Las ! où fuis tu de moy ? hà ma fiere ennemie, Je m’en vois despouiller jaquette et souquenie, Et m’en courray tout nud au haut de ce rocher, Où tu vois ce garçon à la ligne pescher, Afin de me lancer à corps perdu dans Loire, Pour laver mon soucy, ou afin de tant boire D’escumes et de flots, que la flamme d’aimer, Par l’eau contraire au feu se puisse consumer.   Ainsi disoit Thoinet, qui se pasma sur l’herbe, Presque transi de voir sa dame si superbe, Qui rioit de son mal, sans daigner seulement D’un seul petit clin d’œil appaiser son tourment.   J’ouvrois desja la lévre apres Thoinet pour dire De combien Marion m’estoit encores pire, Quand j’avise sa mere en haste gagner l’eau, Et sa fille emmener avec elle au bateau, Qui se joüant sur l’onde attendoit ceste charge, Lié contre le tronc d’un saule au feste large.   Ja les rames tiroient le bateau bien pansu, Et la voile en enflant son grand reply bossu Emportoit le plaisir qui mon cœur tient en peine, Quand je m’assis au bord de la premiere arene : Et voyant le bateau qui s’enfuyoit de moy, Parlant à Marion je chantay ce convoy:

Six years have already passed, and still in my ears I hear the sound of your matchless voice Which won my heart, and reminds me still Of your crimson lips and golden hair, Of your hand, your eyes, and if passing time Has stolen away some part of their grace, Ah, I am no less in love with their gracefulness, Than I was on the Clain, the day I saw you Surpass in beauty all the [ poems/shepherdesses ] Which the young shepherds thought most beautiful. For I pay no regard to what you are, But to what you were, so deeply are your lovely features Graven in me, in such a way That that which you were, is what I carry in my blood.   Since the moment when you pierced my heart with your eye To figure out the end of it, I had the riddle considered By an old dame at the town of Crotelles, who Might tell the whole story, whether good or bad.   After she’d hawked three times in her breast, Three times spat, she took some dough, Shaped it in her fingers and made from it an image Which resembled you in its manner and looks, Turning three times and thrice murmuring Twining all around my neck with her garter She said to me: “I do not hold your neck with my garter As firmly as your life is the inheritor of ill-luck, Francine’s prisoner, and only death Will loose the bond which holds you so tight: Never hope you’ll be able to undertake To make that icicle warm, which should turn you to cinders.”   Alas, I didn’t believe her, and so wishing To be more certain of it, I tried cutting of straws On the eve of St John’s day ; but right then I saw Mine, the sign of Love, grow more than arm’s length While yours stayed short – a sign that you had No care for my pain, and that you didn’t love me, And that your love which is not at all fixed, Like the short straw, has remained short.   Again the day before yesterday, to try you again, I put In the hollow of my hand some hazel-leaves ; But tapping on them, no sound did they give me, And flopping soundlessly on my hand they withered, A true sign that I am mocked in your love Since in tapping on them they crackled not a bit: Showing by this means that your heart does not crackle As mine does with a secret flame.   O my fair Francine, my proud lass, why As you dance, do you not take my hand in yours? Why, tired from the dance, lying in these flowers, Do I not have either my head laid in your lap, Or my eyes on yours, or my lips upon Your two breasts born of snow and ivory? Do I look to you too old? My young beard has still Only begun to spread across my cheek, And your lips which surpass the coral’s beauty Would suffer, if they chose to kiss me, no harm: But just like a lizard hides itself beneath the grass You will hide your tongue beneath my blond hair; Then, withdrawing it, you will take to yourself My heart, which will leave me to kiss you.   Ah, take then my heart along with this pair Of wood-pigeons which I offer you; they came from a nest In that noble tree of which I’ve spoken to you; Margot hung around my neck for them for more than an hour, Thinking to take them to put in her cage. But they aren’t for her: and tomorrow I will bring back more for you, with a finch Which already has learned by heart a fair song Which I made the other day under a pine-tree, Whose beginning is “Tony and Francine”. Oh cruel one, stay, and turn not your loving Eyes from me: ah, I am unhappy For I recognise my illness, even recognise The power of Love who devours my blood. His power is cruel and has no other pleasure Than burning our hearts with his little fire Or icing them over, as if taking his essence From ice or fire or some rock in the countryside. Ah, if I were a bee or a butterfly, I would try Despite you to kiss you, and then would sit On your breasts, to suck out with my mouth That humour which makes you so savage towards me.   O fair lady with the sweet glance, Francine with the fair brow, Kiss me I pray, and embrace me as A tree is embraced by some strong vine. “A meaningless kiss often brings pleasure.” I’m dying! you’ll make me shred this bouquet Which I picked for you, of thyme and lily-of-the-valley And that red flower we call ‘little Cassandre’, And the white flower we call ‘little Olive’ To which Bellot gave both life and name, And that one which takes its name from yours.   Oh, where are you running? My proud enemy, I see myself stripped of jacket and smock, I’ll run naked to the top of that rock Where you see that boy fishing with his line So I can throw my lost body into the Loire To wash away my pain, or to drink so much Of the foam and waves that the flame of loving May, with water opposed to fire, be consumed.   So said Tony, as he fainted on the grass Almost overcome at seeing his lady so proud Laughing at his pain, without deigning even With just one wink of the eye to soften his torment.   I was just opening my lips after Tony to say How much worse Marion was to me, When I spotted her mother hastily getting into the water And taking away her daughter with her in a boat Which, bobbing on the waves, was waiting for this task Tied to the trunk of a wide-crowned willow.   The oars were already drawing the wide-bellied boat, And the sail, filling his great rounded folds Was carrying off the pleasure which keeps my heart in pain, As I sat down on the bank at the edge of the sand: And seeing the boat running away from me I sang this farewell-song to Marion:

 

Half-a-dozen lines in, Ronsard puns gently on “pastourelles”: the most beautiful of ‘shepherdesses’ of course, but in a poem, why should the lady not surpass all poetry in beauty too – or at least all pastoral poetry?

 

Once again Remy Belleau’s commentary offers helpful notes.  Crotelles is  a village near to Poictiers “where they make a thousand noble things, like painted distaffs, boxes & other similar things”.  In the section towards the end of Thoinet’s complaint, various flowers are listed, several (re-)named after various poetic loves: Belleau says “our author, to give his first mistress [Cassandre] immortal praise, named with her name a beautiful red flower which is generally called “bell-flower”. Du Bellay did something similar, naming a white flower which is usually called “Our Lady’s flower” [a white violet] and which blooms in February, an « olivette » from the name of his beloved Olive. He says he has thus named with Francine’s name a beautiful flower which is now called « francinette », previously called by its Greek name anemone or ground-cherry.”

 

Belleau also informs us that the second half of the complaint, beginning “O ma belle Francine, ô ma fiere”, is imitated from Theocritus eclogue 3′ – though we now call them the Idylls of Theocritus.

 

Finally, ‘the eve of St John’s day’ is Midsummer Day, June 24th.

 

There are as usual several changes in this part of the poem, as Ronsard tidied up and improved his poem. I must say, though, that in at least one case I am astonished at the choice of replacement line: where first her eyes take their freezing or burning effect ‘from ice or fire that we will never comprehend’, the revised version has their freezing and burning coming ‘from ice or fire or some rock in the countryside‘?!?!  I’m also amused by how Ronsard’s later more prudish self removes the line about Thoinet having his hand under Francine’s skirt!

 

Six ans sont ja passez, et si dedans l’oreille J’entens encor’ le son de ta voix nompareille, Qui me gaigna le coeur, et me souvient encor De ta vermeille bouche et de tes cheveux d’or, De ta main, de tes yeux, et si le temps qui passe A depuis desrobé quelque peu de leur grace, Si est-ce que de toi je ne suis moins ravy Que je fus sur le Clain, le jour que je te vy Surpasser en beauté toutes les pastourelles, Que les jeunes pasteurs estimoient les plus belles. Car je n’ay pas esgard à cela que tu es, Mais à ce que tu fus, tant les amoureux traits Te graverent en moy, voire de telle sorte Que telle que tu fus telle au cœur je te porte.   Dés l’heure que le cœur des yeux tu me perças, Pour en sçavoir la fin je fis tourner le Sas Par une Janeton, qui au bourg de Crotelles Soit du bien, soit du mal, disoit toutes nouvelles.   Apres qu’elle eut trois fois craché dedans son sein, Trois fois esternué, elle prist du levain, Le retaste en ses doigts, et en fist une image Qui te sembloit de port de taille et de visage : Puis tournoyant trois fois, et trois fois marmonnant, De sa gertiere alla tout mon col entournant, Et me dit, Je ne tiens si fort de ma gertiere Ton col, que ta vie est tenu prisonniere Par les mains de Francine, et seulement la mort Desnou’ra le lien qui te serre si fort : Et n’espere jamais de vouloir entreprendre D’eschauffer un glaçon qui te doit mettre en cendre.   Las! je ne la creu pas, et pour vouloir adonc En estre plus certain, je fis couper le jonc La veille de sainct Jean : mais je vy sur la place Le mien, signe d’ Amour, croistre plus d’une brasse, Le tien demeurer court, signe que tu n’avois Soucy de ma langueur, et que tu ne m’aimois, Et que ton amitié qui n’est point asseurée, Ainsi que le jonc court, est courte demeurée.   Je mis pour t’essayer encores davant-hier Dans le creux de ma main des fueilles de coudrier : Mais en tappant dessus, nul son ne me rendirent, Et, flasques, sans sonner sur la main me fanirent, Vray signe que je suis en ton amour moqué, Puis qu’en frapant dessus elles n’ont point craqué : Pour monstrer par effet que ton cœur ne craquette Ainsi que fait le mien d’une flame segrette.   O ma belle Francine, ô ma fiere, et pourquoy En dansant, de tes mains ne me prens-tu le doy ? Pourquoy lasse du bal entre ces fleurs couchée, N’ay-je sur ton giron ou la teste panchée, Ou la main sous ta cotte, ou la levre dessus Ton tetin, par lequel ton prisonnier je fus ? Te semble-je trop vieil ? encor la barbe tendre Ne fait que commencer sur ma jouë à s’estendre, Et ta bouche qui passe en beauté le coural, S’elle veut me baiser, ne se fera point mal : Mais ainsi qu’un Lezard se cache sous l’herbette, Sous ma blonde toison cacheras ta languette : Puis en la retirant, tu tireras à toy Mon cœur, pour te baiser, qui sortira de moy.   Helas prens donc mon cœur, avecques ceste paire De ramiers que je t’offre, ils sont venus de l’aire De ce gentil ramier dont je t’avois parlé : Margot m’en a tenu plus d’une heure acollé, Les pensant emporter pour les mettre en sa cage. Mais ce n’est pas pour elle : et demain davantage Je t’en rapporteray, avecques un pinson Qui desja sçait par cœur une belle chanson, Que je fis l’autre jour dessous une aubespine, Dont le commencement est Thoinet et Francine. Hà, cruelle, demeure, et tes yeux amoureux Ne destourne de moy : hà je suis malheureux ! Car je cognois mon mal, et si ai cognoissance D’Amour et de sa mere, et quelle est leur puissance. Leur puissance est cruelle, et n’ont point d’autre jeu, Sinon que de brusler nos cœurs à petit feu, Ou de les englacer, comme ayant pris leur estre D’une glace ou d’un feu qu’on ne sauroit cognoistre. Ha ! que ne suis-je abeille, ou papillon, j’irois Maugré toy te baiser, et puis je m’assirois Sur tes tetins, afin de succer de ma bouche Ceste humeur qui te fait contre moy si farouche.   O belle au doux regard, Francine au beau sourcy, Baise-moy je te prie, et m’embrasses ainsy Qu’un arbre est embrassé d’une vigne bien forte. « Souvent un vain baiser quelque plaisir apporte. » Je meurs ! tu me feras despecer ce bouquet, Que j’ay cueilly pour joy, de Thym et de Muguet, Et de la rouge-fleur qu’on nomme Cassandrette, Et de la blanche-fleur qu’on appelle Olivette, A qui Bellot donna et la vie et le nom, Et de celle qui prend de ton nom son surnom.   Las ! où fuis tu de moy ? hà ma fiere ennemie, Je m’en vais despouiller jaquette et souquenie, Et m’en courray tout nud au haut de ce rocher, Où tu vois ce garçon à la ligne pescher, Afin de me lancer à corps perdu dans Loire, Pour laver mon soucy, ou afin de tant boire D’escumes et de flots, que la flamme d’aimer, Par l’eau contraire au feu se puisse consumer.   Ainsi disoit Thoinet, qui se pasma sur l’herbe, Presque transi de voir sa dame si superbe, Qui rioit de son mal, sans daigner seulement D’un seul petit clin d’œil appaiser son tourment.   J’ouvrois desja la lévre apres Thoinet pour dire De combien Marion m’estoit encores pire, Quand j’avise sa mere en haste gagner l’eau, Et sa fille emmener avec elle au bateau, Qui se joüant sur l’onde attendoit ceste charge, Lié contre le tronc d’un saule au feste large.   Ja les rames tiroient le bateau bien pansu, Et la voile en enflant son grand reply bossu Emportoit le plaisir qui mon cœur tient en peine, Quand je m’assis au bord de la premiere arene : Et voyant le bateau qui s’enfuyoit de moy, Parlant à Marion je chantay ce convoy:

Six years have already passed, and still within my ears I hear the sound of your matchless voice Which won my heart, and reminds me still Of your crimson lips and golden hair, Of your hand, your eyes, and if passing time Has stolen away some part of their grace, Still am I no less in love with you, Than I was on the Clain, the day I saw you Surpass in beauty all the [ poems/shepherdesses ] Which the young shepherds thought most beautiful. For I pay no regard to what you are, But to what you were, so deeply are your lovely features Graven in me, in such a way That that which you were, is what I carry in my heart.   Since the moment when you pierced my heart with your eyes To figure out the end of it, I had the riddle considered By an old dame at the town of Crotelles, who Might tell the whole story, whether good or bad.   After she’d hawked three times in her breast, Three times spat, she took some dough, Shaped it in her fingers and made from it an image Which resembled you in its manner and looks, Turning three times and thrice murmuring Twining all around my neck with her garter She said to me: “I do not hold your neck with my garter As firmly as your life is held prisoner By the hands of Francine, and only death Will loose the bond which holds you so tight: Never hope you’ll be able to undertake To make that icicle warm, which should turn you to cinders.   Alas, I didn’t believe her, and so wishing To be more certain of it, I tried cutting of straws On the eve of St John’s day ; but right then I saw Mine, the sign of Love, grow more than arm’s length While yours stayed short – a sign that you had No care for my pain, and that you didn’t love me, And that your love which is not at all fixed, Like the short straw, has remained short.   Again the day before yesterday, to try you again, I put In the hollow of my hand some hazel-leaves ; But tapping on them, no sound did they give me, And flopping soundlessly on my hand they withered, A true sign that I am mocked in your love Since in tapping on them they crackled not a bit: Showing by this means that your heart does not crackle As mine does with a secret flame.   O my fair Francine, my proud lass, why As you dance, do you not take my hand in yours? Why, tired from the dance, lying in these flowers, Do I not have either my head laid in your lap, Or my hand beneath your skirt, or my lips upon Your breast, which made me your prisoner? Do I look to you too old? My young beard has still Only begun to spread across my cheek, And your lips which surpass the coral’s beauty Would suffer, if they chose to kiss me, no harm: But just like a lizard hides itself beneath the grass You will hide your tongue beneath my blond hair; Then, withdrawing it, you will take to yourself My heart, which will leave me to kiss you.   Ah, take then my heart along with this pair Of wood-pigeons which I offer you; they came from a nest In that noble tree of which I’ve spoken to you; Margot hung around my neck for them for more than an hour, Thinking to take them to put in her cage. But they aren’t for her: and tomorrow I will bring back more for you, with a finch Which already has learned by heart a fair song Which I made the other day under a pine-tree, Whose beginning is “Tony and Francine”. Oh cruel one, stay, and turn not your loving Eyes from me: ah, I am unhappy For I recognise my illness, even have understanding Of Love and his mother, and what their power is. Their power is cruel, and they have no other pleasure Except to burn our hearts with their little fire Or to ice them over, as if taking their essence From ice or fire that we will never comprehend. Ah, if I were a bee or a butterfly, I would try Despite you to kiss you, and then would sit On your breasts, to suck out with my mouth That humour which makes you so savage towards me.   O fair lady with the sweet glance, Francine with the fair brow, Kiss me I pray, and embrace me as A tree is embraced by some strong vine. “A meaningless kiss often brings pleasure.” I’m dying! you’ll make me shred this bouquet Which I picked for you, of thyme and lily-of-the-valley And that red flower we call ‘little Cassandre’, And the white flower we call ‘little Olive’ To which Bellot gave both life and name, And that one which takes its name from yours.   Oh, where are you running? My proud enemy, I’m going to strip myself of jacket and smock, I’ll run naked to the top of that rock Where you see that boy fishing with his line So I can throw my lost body into the Loire To wash away my pain, or to drink so much Of the foam and waves that the flame of loving May, with water opposed to fire, be consumed.   So said Tony, as he fainted on the grass Almost overcome at seeing his lady so proud Laughing at his pain, without deigning even With just one wink of the eye to soften his torment.   I was just opening my lips after Tony to say How much worse Marion was to me, When I spotted her mother hastily getting into the water And taking away her daughter with her in a Which, bobbing on the waves, was waiting for this task Tied to the trunk of a wide-crowned willow.   The oars were already drawing the wide-bellied boat, And the sail, filling his great rounded folds Was carrying off the pleasure which keeps my heart in pain, As I sat down on the bank at the edge of the sand: And seeing the boat running away from me I sang this farewell-song to Marion:

 

 

For the enthusiast, here is the Theocritus poem Ronsard adapted: you’ll certainly recognise some considerable overlaps. The translation is by Charles Stuart Calverley (1908).

Κωμάσδω ποτὶ τὰν ᾿Αμαρυλλίδα, ταὶ δέ μοι αἶγες βόσκονται κατ᾽ ὄρος, καὶ ὁ Τίτυρος αὐτὰς ἐλαύνει. Τίτυρ᾽ ἐμὶν τὸ καλὸν πεφιλαμένε, βόσκε τὰς αἶγας, καὶ ποτὶ τὰν κράναν ἄγε Τίτυρε, καὶ τὸν ἐνόρχαν τὸν Λιβυκὸν κνάκωνα φυλάσσεο, μή τι κορύψῃ. ̂̓Ω χαρίεσσ᾽ ᾿Αμαρυλλί, τί μ᾽ οὐκέτι τοῦτο κατ᾽ ἄντρον παρκύπτοισα καλεῖς τὸν ἐρωτύλον; ἦ ῥά με μισεῖς; ἦ ῥά γέ τοι σιμὸς καταφαίνομαι ἐγγύθεν ἦμεν, νύμφα, καὶ προγένειος; ἀπάγξασθαί με ποησεῖς.   ἠνίδε τοι δέκα μᾶλα φέρω: τηνῶθε καθεῖλον, ὧ μ᾽ ἐκέλευ καθελεῖν τύ: καὶ αὔριον ἄλλά τοι οἰσῶ. θᾶσαι μὰν θυμαλγὲς ἐμὸν ἄχος: αἴθε γενοίμαν ἁ βομβεῦσα μέλισσα καὶ ἐς τεὸν ἄντρον ἱκοίμαν τὸν κισσὸν διαδὺς καὶ τὰν πτέριν, ᾇ τὺ πυκάσδῃ. νῦν ἔγνων τὸν ῎Ερωτα: βαρὺς θεός: ἦ ῥα λεαίνας μαζὸν ἐθήλαζε, δρυμῷ τέ νιν ἔτρεφε μάτηρ, ὅς με κατασμύχων καὶ ἐς ὀστίον ἄχρις ἰάπτει. ὦ τὸ καλὸν ποθορεῦσα, τὸ πᾶν λίθος: ὦ κυάνοφρυ νύμφα, πρόσπτυξαί με τὸν αἰπόλον, ὥς τυ φιλάσω. ἔστι καὶ ἐν κενεοῖσι φιλάμασιν ἁδέα τέρψις. τὸν στέφανον τῖλαί με κατ᾽ αὐτίκα λεπτὰ ποησεῖς, τόν τοι ἐγὼν ᾿Αμαρυλλὶ φίλα κισσοῖο φυλάσσω ἀμπλέξας καλύκεσσι καὶ εὐόδμοισι σελίνοις.– ῎Ωμοι ἐγώ, τί πάθω; τί ὁ δύσσοος; οὐχ ὑπακούεις;–   τὰν βαίταν ἀποδὺς ἐς κύματα τηνῶ ἁλεῦμαι, ὧπερ τὼς θύννως σκοπιάζεται ῎Ολπις ὁ γριπεύς: καἴκα δἠποθάνω, τό γε μὰν τεὸν ἁδὺ τέτυκται. ἔγνων πρᾶν, ὅκα μευ μεμναμένω, εἰ φιλέεις με, οὐδὲ τὸ τηλέφιλον ποτεμάξατο, τὸ πλατάγημα, ἀλλ᾽ αὔτως ἁπαλῷ ποτὶ πάχεος ἐξεμαράνθη. εἶπε καὶ ἀγροιῶτις ἀλαθέα κοσκινόμαντις, ἁ πρᾶν ποιολογεῦσα Παραιβάτις, οὕνεκ᾽ ἐγὼ μὲν τὶν ὅλος ἔγκειμαι, τὺ δέ μευ λόγον οὐδένα ποιῇ. ἦ μάν τοι λευκὰν διδυματόκον αἶγα φυλάσσω, τάν με καὶ ἁ Μέρμνωνος ἐριθακὶς ἁ μελανόχρως αἰτεῖ, καὶ δωσῶ οἱ, ἐπεὶ τύ μοι ἐνδιαθρύπτῃ. ῞Αλλεται ὀφθαλμός μευ ὁ δεξιός: ἦ ῥά γ᾽ ἰδησῶ αὐτάν; ᾀσεῦμαι ποτὶ τὰν πίτυν ὧδ᾽ ἀποκλινθείς, καί κέ μ᾽ ἴσως ποτίδοι, ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἀδαμαντίνα ἐστίν.   ῾Ιππομένης ὅκα δὴ τὰν παρθένον ἤθελε γᾶμαι, μᾶλ᾽ ἐν χερσὶν ἑλὼν δρόμον ἄνυεν: ἁ δ᾽ ᾿Αταλάντα ὡς ἴδεν, ὡς ἐμάνη, ὡς ἐς βαθὺν ἅλατ᾽ ἔρωτα. τὰν ἀγέλαν χὡ μάντις ἀπ᾽ ῎Οθρυος ἆγε Μελάμπους ἐς Πύλον: ἁ δὲ Βίαντος ἐν ἀγκοίναισιν ἐκλίνθη, μάτηρ ἁ χαρίεσσα περίφρονος ᾿Αλφεσιβοίης. τὰν δὲ καλὰν Κυθέρειαν ἐν ὤρεσι μᾶλα νομεύων οὐχ οὑτῶς ὥδωνις ἐπὶ πλέον ἄγαγε λύσσας, ὥστ᾽ οὐδὲ φθίμενόν νιν ἄτερ μαζοῖο τίθητι; ζαλωτὸς μὲν ἐμὶν ὁ τὸν ἄτροπον ὕπνον ἰαύων ᾿Ενδυμίων, ζαλῶ δὲ φίλα γύναι ᾿Ιασίωνα, ὃς τοσσῆν᾽ ἐκύρησεν, ὅσ᾽ οὐ πευσεῖσθε βέβαλοι. ᾿Αλγέω τὰν κεφαλάν, τὶν δ᾽ οὐ μέλει. οὐκέτ᾽ ἀείδω, κεισεῦμαι δὲ πεσών, καὶ τοὶ λύκοι ὧδέ μ᾽ ἔδονται. ὡς μέλι τοι γλυκὺ τοῦτο κατὰ βρόχθοιο γένοιτο.

I pipe to Amaryllis; while my goats, Tityrus their guardian, browse along the fell. O Tityrus, as I love thee, feed my goats: And lead them to the spring, and Tityrus, ’ware The lifted crest of yon gray Libyan ram.   Ah winsome Amaryllis! Why no more Greet’st thou thy darling, from the caverned rock Peeping all coyly? Think’st thou scorn of him? Hath a near view revealed him satyr-shaped Of chin and nostril? I shall hang me soon. See here ten apples: from thy favourite tree 1 plucked them: I shall bring ten more anon. Ah witness my heart-anguish! Oh were I A booming bee, to waft me to thy lair, Threading the fern and ivy in whose depths Thou nestlest! I have learned what Love is now: Fell god, he drank the lioness’s milk, In the wild woods his mother cradled him, Whose fire slow-burns me, smiting to the bone. O thou whose glance is beauty and whose heart All marble: O dark-eyebrowed maiden mine! Cling to thy goatherd, let him kiss thy lips, For there is sweetness in an empty kiss. Thou wilt not? Piecemeal I will rend the crown, The ivy-crown which, dear, I guard for thee, Inwov’n with scented parsley and with flowers: Oh I am desperate — what betides me, what? — Still art thou deaf? I’ll doff my coat of skins And leap into yon waves, where on the watch For mackerel Olpis sits: tho’ I ‘scape death, That I have all but died will pleasure thee. That learned I when (I murmuring “loves she me?”) The Love-in-absence, crushed, returned no sound, But shrank and shrivelled on my smooth young wrist. I learned it of the sieve-divining crone Who gleaned behind the reapers yesterday: “Thou’rt wrapt up all,” Agraia said, “in her; She makes of none account her worshipper.”   Lo! a white goat, and twins, I keep for thee: Mermnon’s lass covets them: dark she is of skin: But yet hers be they; thou but foolest me.   She cometh, by the quivering of mine eye. I’ll lean against the pine-tree here and sing. She may look round: she is not adamant.   [he sings] Hippomenes, when he a maid would wed, Took apples in his hand and on he sped. Famed Atalanta’s heart was won by this; She marked, and maddening sank in Love’s abyss.   Prom Othrys did the seer Melampus stray To Pylos with his herd: and lo there lay In a swain’s arms a maid of beauty rare; Alphesiboea, wise of heart, she bare.   Did not Adonis rouse to such excess Of frenzy her whose name is Loveliness, (He a mere lad whose wethers grazed the hill) That, dead, he’s pillowed on her bosom still?   Endymion sleeps the sleep that changeth not: And, maiden mine, I envy him his lot! Envy Iasion’s: his it was to gain Bliss that I dare not breathe in ears profane.   My head aches. What reck’st thou? I sing no more: E’en where I fell I’ll lie, until the wolves Rend me — may that be honey in thy mouth!

 

Le Voyage de Tours: ou, Les amoureux

Some poetry is long overdue. Here’s the first 70 lines of “The Journey to Tours”, subtitled ‘The Lovers’, which is inserted by Ronsard into the middle of the 2nd book of Amours, featuring as it does his heroine of that book, Marie (here called Marion).

The poem is an extended eclogue or pastoral poem, imitating the Arcadian literature both of Greece & Rome and of the renaissance poets who renewed these themes. Although the pastoral poets demonstrate their erudition regularly with classical references or simply with complex and allusive verse, Ronsard plays to the genre theme, slightly mocking it in the light semi-comic “rustic” style he adopts, and the ‘colloquial’ names he gives his principal characters.. Marie becomes Marion, as we have seen, and ‘Thoinet’, from ‘Antoine’ (de Baif), approximates to ‘Tony’ in English; though ‘Perrot’ (from ‘Pierre’ de Ronsard) doesn’t quite work as Pete.  The poem gives Ronsard scope both to describe the details of the countryside in loving detail, and also to locate it firmly in the France he knows; we cannot be sure that the journey is an invented one, the details make it so believable.

C’estoit en la saison que l’amoureuse Flore Faisoit pour son amy les fleurettes esclore Par les prez bigarrez d’autant d’esmail de fleurs, Que le grand arc du Ciel s’esmaille de couleurs : Lors que les papillons et les blondes avettes, Les uns chargez au bec, les autres aux cuissettes, Errent par les jardins, et les petits oiseaux Voletans par les bois de rameaux en rameaux Amassent la bechée, et parmy la verdure Ont souci comme nous de leur race future.     Thoinet au mois d’Avril passant par Vandomois, Me mena voir à Tours Marion que j’aimois, Qui aux nopces estoit d’une sienne cousine : Et ce Thoinet aussi alloit voir sa Francine, Qu’ Amour en se jouant d’un trait plein de rigueur, Luy avoit pres le Clain escrite dans le coeur.     Nous partismes tous deux du hameau de Coustures, Nous passasmes Gastine et ses hautes verdures, Nous passasmes Marré, et vismes à mi- jour Du pasteur Phelipot s’eslever la grand tour, Qui de Beaumont la Ronce honore le village Comme un pin fait honneur aux arbres d’un bocage. Ce pasteur qu’on nommoit Phelippot tout gaillard, Chez luy nous festoya jusques au soir bien tard. De là vinsmes coucher au gué de Lengenrie, Sous des saules plantez le long d’une prairie : Puis dés le poinct du jour redoublant le marcher, Nous vismes en un bois s’eslever le clocher De sainct Cosme pres Tours, où la nopce gentille Dans un pré se faisoit au beau milieu de l’isle.     Là Francine dançoit, de Thoinet le souci, Là Marion balloit, qui fut le mien aussi : Puis nous mettans tous deux en l’ordre de la dance, Thoinet tout le premier ceste plainte commence.     Ma Francine, mon cueur, qu’oublier je ne puis, Bien que pour ton amour oublié je me suis, Quand dure en cruauté tu passerois les Ourses Et les torrens d’hyver desbordez de leurs courses, Et quand tu porterois en lieu d’humaine chair Au fond de l’estomach, pour un cueur un rocher : Quand tu aurois succé le laict d’une Lyonne, Quand tu serois, cruelle, une beste felonne, Ton cœur seroit pourtant de mes pleurs adouci, Et ce pauvre Thoinet tu prendrois à merci.     Je suis, s’il t’en souvient, Thoinet qui dés jeunesse Te voyant sur le Clain t’appella sa maistresse, Qui musette et flageol à ses lévres usa Pour te donner plaisir, mais cela m’abusa : Car te pensant flechir comme une femme humaine, Je trouvay ta poitrine et ton aureille pleine, Helas qui l’eust pensé ! de cent mille glaçons Lesquels ne t’ont permis d’escouter mes chansons : Et toutesfois le temps, qui les prez de leurs herbes Despouille d’an en an, et les champs de leurs gerbes, Ne m’a point despouillé le souvenir du jour, Ny du mois où je mis en tes yeux mon amour : Ny ne fera jamais voire eussé-je avallée L’onde qui court là bas sous l’obscure valée. C’estoit au mois d’Avril, Francine, il m’en souvient, Quand tout arbre florit, quand la terre devient De vieillesse en jouvence, et l’estrange arondelle Fait contre un soliveau sa maison naturelle : Quand la Limace au dos qui porte sa maison, Laisse un trac sur les fleurs : quand la blonde toison Va couvrant la chenille, et quand parmy les prées Volent les papillons aux ailes diaprées, Lors que fol je te vy, et depuis je n’ay peu Rien voir apres tes yeux que tout ne m’ait despleu.

It was in the season when Flora, being in love, Made flowers bloom for her lover In the meadows scattered with such a mottling of flowers As the great arc of the Heavens is mottled with colours: As the butterflies and yellow bees, Their mouths or their little thighs full, Wander through the gardens, and the little birds Fluttering among the woods from branch to branch Gather their beak-fuls, and among the greenery Plan, as we do, for the future of their race.     Tony, passing through the Vendôme in April, Took me to Tours, to see Marion whom I loved, Who was at the wedding of her cousin; And Tony too was going to see his Francine Whom Love, laughingly striking him a blow full of trouble, Had written on his heart, near Clain.     The two of us left the hamlet of Coustures, Crossed Gastine and its rich greenery, Passed Marré and saw at midday The great tower of Philip the shepherd rising up, Which brings credit to the village of Beaumont la Ronce As a pine brings credit to the trees of a copse. This shepherd they call Philip merrily Feasted us at his house until late in the evening. From there, we reached our beds at Lengenrie ford, Beneath willows planted the length of a field; Then at daybreak taking up our walk again We saw rising in a wood the bell-tower Of St Cosmas near Tours, where the noble wedding Was taking place in a meadow right in the middle of the island.     There Francine was dancing, Tony’s beloved; There Marion was capering, my own also: Then, as both of us joined in the line of dancers, Tony first began his complaint:     My Francine, my heart whom I cannot forget, Although for your love I am forgotten, Though harsh in cruelty you exceed bears And the winter torrents bursting their banks, And though you bear, in place of human flesh Deep in your belly not a heart but a stone; Though you have sucked the milk of a lioness, Though you are a ravenous beast, o cruel one, Your heart can still be softened by my tears And you’ll still grant mercy to your poor Tony.     I am, you recall, that Tony who, from his youth, Seeing you on the Clain, called you his mistress, Who put bagpipe and flute to his lips To give you pleasure: but that deceived me, For thinking to influence you like a human woman I found your breast and ears full – Ah, who’d have thought it! – of a million icicles Which prevented you from hearing my songs; And still time, which steals from the meadows Their plants from year to year, and from the fields their sheaves, Has not stolen from me the memory of that day Or month when your eyes took my love. Nor will it ever, even if I had drunk The water which flows down below in the dark valley. It was in the month of April, Francine, I remember, When every tree blossoms, when the earth changes From old age to youth, and the swallow from abroad Makes against a small beam his own kind of home; When the snail who bears his house on his back Leaves his tracks on the flowers; when a yellow fleece Covers the caterpillar, and when in the meadows Butterflies fly on their colourful wings, It was then that I saw you, fell in love, and since then everything I’ve seen Apart from but your eyes has displeased me.

 

Remy Belleau’s commentary offers a range of useful, and less useful, details on the places named by Ronsard. Coustures, he tells us, is “where our poet was born”; the forest of Gastine we have met before; Marré and Beaumont la Ronce are villages, Lengenrie a “little village”!  Saint-Cosmas was a priory situated on an island next to Tours; Ronsard was fond of it, not least becasue in 1565 he became ‘commendatory abbot’. This is a picture of the statue of Ronsard now at St-Cosme. The Clain is the river which passes by Poictiers, which (Belleau tells us, in case we didn’t read the line in the poem) is where Baif first fell in love with Francine!

 

A couple of classical references:  Flora, the goddess of spring, most familiar to us from her appearance in a flowery dress in Botticelli’s “Primavera” (Spring); and, again in case we didn’t read the poem, Belleau explains that the ‘waters flowing down below’ are the waters of the river Lethe which make you lose your memory.

 

========

 

The earlier version given by Blanchemain of course differs in detail, but also comes with an introductory dedication. Blanchemain explains “this dedication to L’Huillier, a rich bourgeois of Paris, perhaps the father or grandfather of Chapelle, is found only in the 1560 edition.” He doesn’t explain why Ronsard would call a bourgeois “Seigneur” (my lord).

 

Jérôme L’Huillier, lord of Maisonfleur, was a close friend of Ronsard’s (and an amateur poet) around 1560, and Ronsard wrote two Elegies for him as well as dedicating his “Second Livre du Recueil des nouvelles poesies” to him in 1564 – here’s the title page.

 

When L’Huillier converted to Protestantism in 1566, the dedications were all removed (Ronsard remaining a good Catholic). But oddly L’Huillier’s name remained in the first line of one of the elegies, and the fourth book of Elegies was dedicated to L’Huillier on its publication in 1567! (The fluidity of religious boundaries at the time perhaps also shows in Ronsard’s writing a Hymn to his friend Cardinal Coligny, which he retained in later editions after Coligny defected and became a Huguenot…)  Perhaps there are further signs of a rapprochement in 1586, when L’Huillier’s son & heir Estienne included in a set of Reformist ‘Cantiques’ a translation of the Te Deum by Ronsard which the latter had published in his anti-Reformation ‘Discours’! A later 1592 edition also added three more sizeable Ronsard poems.

 

In this dedication, Ronsard writes 12 lines, but unusually and intriguingly groups them 5-3-4

 

 

Au seigneur L’Huillier

L’Huillier, à qui Phoebus, comme au seul de nostre age,
A donné ses beaux vers et son luth en partage,
En ta faveur icy je chante les amours
Que Perrot et Thoinet souspirerent à Tours,
L’un espris de Francine, et l’autre de Marie.

 

Ce Thoinet est Baïf, qui doctement manie
Les mestiers d’Apollon ; ce Perrot est Ronsard,
Que la Muse n’a fait le dernier en son art.

 

Si ce grand duc de Guyse, honneur de nostre France,
N’amuse point ta plume en chose d’importance,
Preste moy ton oreille, et t’en viens lire icy
L’amour de ces pasteurs et leur voyage aussy.

 

 

                                                                                        To my lord L’Huillier

                                                                                        L’Huillier, to whom Phoebus as to the only man of our age

                                                                                        Has given a share of his beautiful verse and his lute,

                                                                                        For you I here sing of the love

                                                                                        With which Pete and Tony sighed at Tours,

                                                                                        One fallen for Francine, the other for Marie.

 

                                                                                        This Tony is Baïf, who learnedly handles

                                                                                        Apollo’s tasks; Pete is Ronsard

                                                                                        Whom the Muse has not made last in his art.

 

                                                                                        If the great Duke of Guise, the honour of France,

                                                                                        Does not keep your pen employed on important things,

                                                                                        Lend me your ear, and come with me to read here

                                                                                        Of the loves of these shepherds and their journey too.

There are few changes in this part of the poem, though already we can see ways in which Ronsard tidied up and improved the poem in the later version above.

C’estoit en la saison que l’amoureuse Flore Faisoit pour son amy les fleurettes esclore Par les prez bigarrez d’autant d’esmail de fleurs, Que le grand arc du Ciel s’esmaille de couleurs : Lors que les papillons et les blondes avettes, Les uns chargez au bec, les autres aux cuissettes, Errent par les jardins, et les petits oiseaux Voletans par les bois de rameaux en rameaux Amassent la bechée, et parmy la verdure Ont souci comme nous de leur race future.     Thoinet, en ce beau temps, passant par Vandomois, Me mena voir à Tours Marion que j’aimois, Qui aux nopces estoit d’une sienne cousine : Et ce Thoinet aussi alloit voir sa Francine, Que la grande Venus, d’un trait plein de rigueur, Luy avoit pres le Clain escrite dans le coeur.     Nous partismes tous deux du hameau de Coustures, Nous passasmes Gastine et ses hautes verdures, Nous passasmes Marré, et vismes à mi- jour Du pasteur Phelipot s’eslever la grand’ tour, Qui de Beaumont la Ronce honore le village Comme un pin fait honneur aux arbres d’un bocage. Ce pasteur qu’on nommoit Phelippot le gaillard, Courtois, nous festoya jusques au soir bien tard. De là vinsmes coucher au gué de Lengenrie, Sous des saules plantez le long d’une prairie : Puis dés le poinct du jour redoublant le marcher, Nous vismes en un bois s’eslever le clocher De sainct Cosme pres Tours, où la nopce gentille Dans un pré se faisoit au beau milieu de l’isle.     Là Francine dançoit, de Thoinet le souci, Là Marion balloit, qui fut le mien aussi : Puis nous mettans tous deux en l’ordre de la dance, Thoinet tout le premier ceste plainte commence.     Ma Francine, mon cueur, qu’oublier je ne puis, Bien que pour ton amour oublié je me suis, Quand dure en cruauté tu passerois les Ourses Et les torrens d’hyver desbordez de leurs courses, Et quand tu porterois en lieu d’humaine chair Au fond de l’estomach, pour un cueur un rocher : Quand tu aurois succé le laict d’une Lyonne, Quand tu serois autant qu’une tigre felonne, Ton cœur seroit pourtant de mes pleurs adouci, Et ce pauvre Thoinet tu prendrois à merci.     Je suis, s’il t’en souvient, Thoinet qui dés jeunesse Te voyant sur le Clain t’appella sa maistresse, Qui musette et flageol à ses lévres usa Pour te donner plaisir, mais cela m’abusa : Car te pensant flechir comme une femme humaine, Je trouvay ta poitrine et ton aureille pleine, Helas qui l’eust pensé ! de cent mille glaçons Lesquels ne t’ont permis d’escouter mes chansons : Et toutesfois le temps, qui les prez de leurs herbes Despouille d’an en an, et les champs de leurs gerbes, Ne m’a point despouillé le souvenir du jour, Ny du mois où je mis en tes yeux mon amour : Ny ne fera jamais voire eussé-je avallée L’onde qui court là bas sous l’obscure valée. C’estoit au mois d’Avril, Francine, il m’en souvient, Quand tout arbre florit, quand la terre devient De vieillesse en jouvence, et l’estrange arondelle Fait contre un soliveau sa maison naturelle : Quand la Limace au dos qui porte sa maison, Laisse un trac sur les fleurs : quand la blonde toison Va couvrant la chenille, et quand parmy les prées Volent les papillons aux ailes diaprées, Lors que fol je te vy, et depuis je n’ay peu Rien voir apres tes yeux que tout ne m’ait despleu.

It was in the season when Flora, being in love, Made flowers bloom for her lover In the meadows scattered with such a mottling of flowers As the great arc of the Heavens is mottled with colours: As the butterflies and yellow bees, Their mouths or their little thighs full, Wander through the gardens, and the little birds Fluttering among the woods from branch to branch Gather their beak-fuls, and among the greenery Plan, as we do, for the future of their race.     Tony, passing through the Vendôme at this beautiful time, Took me to Tours, to see Marion whom I loved, Who was at the wedding of her cousin; And Tony too was going to see his Francine Whom great Venus, with a blow full of trouble, Had written on his heart, near Clain.     The two of us left the hamlet of Coustures, Crossed Gastine and its rich greenery, Passed Marré and saw at midday The great tower of Philip the shepherd rising up, Which brings credit to the village of Beaumont la Ronce As a pine brings credit to the trees of a copse. This shepherd they call Philip the merry Feasted us in courtly fashion until late in the evening. From there, we reached our beds at Lengenrie ford, Beneath willows planted the length of a field; Then at daybreak taking up our walk again We saw rising in a wood the bell-tower Of St Cosmas near Tours, where the noble wedding Was taking place in a meadow right in the middle of the island.     There Francine was dancing, Tony’s beloved; There Marion was capering, my own also: Then, as both of us joined in the line of dancers, Tony first began his complaint:     My Francine, my heart whom I cannot forget, Although for your love I am forgotten, Though harsh in cruelty you exceed bears And the winter torrents bursting their banks, And though you bear, in place of human flesh Deep in your belly not a heart but a stone; Though you have sucked the milk of a lioness, Though you are like a cruel tigress, Your heart can still be softened by my tears And you’ll still grant mercy to your poor Tony.     I am, you recall, that Tony who, from his youth, Seeing you on the Clain, called you his mistress, Who put bagpipe and flute to his lips To give you pleasure: but that deceived me, For thinking to influence you like a human woman I found your breast and ears full – Ah, who’d have thought it! – of a million icicles Which prevented you from hearing my songs; And still time, which steals from the meadows Their plants from year to year, and from the fields their sheaves, Has not stolen from me the memory of that day Or month when your eyes took my love. Nor will it ever, even if I had drunk The water which flows down below in the dark valley. It was in the month of April, Francine, I remember, When every tree blossoms, when the earth changes From old age to youth, and the swallow from abroad Makes against a small beam his own kind of home; When the snail who bears his house on his back Leaves his tracks on the flowers; when a yellow fleece Covers the caterpillar, and when in the meadows Butterflies fly on their colourful wings, It was then that I saw you, fell in love, and since then everything I’ve seen Apart from but your eyes has displeased me.