Indeed, it is precisely7 because Ronsard lends himself so superbly as an amateur to treatment by the amateur, that any attempt to approach him more closely seems to be tinged8 with rancour or ingratitude9. There is something churlish in the determination to be most on one's guard against the engaging graces of the amateur, a sense that one is behaving like the hero of a Gissing novel; but the choice is not large. One must regard Ronsard either as a charming country gentleman, or as a great historical figure in the development of French poetry, or as a poet; and the third aspect has a chance of being the most important.
Ronsard is pre-eminently the poet of a simple mind. There is nothing mysterious about him or his poetry; there is not even a perceptible thread of development in either. They are equable, constant imperturbable10, like the bag of a much invited gun, or the innings of a safe batsman. The accomplishment11 is akin12 to an animal endowment. The nerves, instead of being, if only for a moment, tense and agitated13, are steady to a degree that can produce an exasperation14 in a less well-appointed spectator. He will never let himself down, or give himself away, one feels, until the admiration of an apparent sure restraint passes into the conviction that there is nothing to restrain. All Ronsard the poet is in his poetry, and indeed on the surface of it.
Poetry was not therefore, as one is tempted16 to think sometimes, for Ronsard a game. There was plenty of game in it; l'art de bien pétrarquiser was all he claimed for himself. But the game would have wearied any one who was not aware that he could be completely satisfied and expressed by it. Ronsard was never weary. However much one may tire of him, the fatigue17 never is infected by the nausea18 which is produced by some of the mechanical sonnet19 sequences of his contemporaries. No one reading Ronsard ever felt the tedium20 of mere21 nullity. It would be hard to find in the whole of M. van Bever's exhaustive edition of 'Les Amours'[9] a single piece which has not its sufficient charge of gusto. When you are tired, it is because you have had enough of that particular kind of man and mind; you know him too well, and can reckon too closely the chances of a shock of surprise.
[Footnote 9: Les Amours. Par15 Pierre de Ronsard. Texte établi par
Ad. van Bever. Two volumes. (Paris: Crès.)]
With the more obvious, and in their way delightful22, surprises Ronsard is generous. He can hold the attention longer than any poet of an equal tenuity of matter. Chiefly for two reasons, of which one is hardly capable of further analysis. It is the obvious reality of his own delight in 'Petrarchising.' He is perpetually in love with making; he disports23 himself with a childlike enthusiasm in his art. There are moments when he seems hardly to have passed beyond the stage of naive24 wonder that words exist and are manipulable.
'Dous fut le trait, qu'Amour hors de sa trousse
Pour me tuer, me tira doucement,
Quand je fus pris au dous commencement
D'une douceur si doucettement douce….'
Ronsard is here a boy playing knucklebones with language; and some of his characteristic excellences25 are little more than a development of this aptitude26, with its more striking incongruities27 abated28. A modern ear can be intoxicated29 by the charming jingle30 of
'Petite Nimfe folastre,
Nimfette que j'idolastre….'
One does not pause to think how incredibly naive it is compared with Villon, who had not a fraction of Ronsard's scholarship, or even with Clement31 Marot; naive both in thought and art. As for the stature32 of the artist, we are back with Charles of Orleans. It would be idle to speculate what exactly Villon would have made of the atomic theory had he read Lucretius; but we are certain that he would have done something very different from Ronsard's
'Les petits cors, culbutant de travers,
Parmi leur cheute en biais vagabonde,
Heurtés ensemble33 ont composé le monde,
S'entr'acrochant d'acrochemens divers….'
For this is not grown-up; the cut to simplicity34 has been too short. So many of Ronsard's verses flow over the mind, without disturbing it; fall charmingly on the ear, and leave no echoes. But for the moment we share his enjoyment35.
The second cause of his continued power of attraction is doubtless allied36 to the first; it is a na?veté of a particular kind, which differs from the profound ingenuousness37 of which we have spoken by the fact that it is employed deliberately38. Conscious simplicity is art, and if it is successful art of no mean order, Ronsard's method of admitting us, as it were, to his conversation with himself is definitely his own. His interruptions of a verse with 'Hà' or 'Hé'; his 'Mon Dieu, que j'aime!' or 'Hé, que ne suis-je puce?' (the difference between Ronsard's flea39 and Donne's would be worth examination) have in them an element of irresistible40 bonhomie. We feel that he is making us his confidant. He does not have to tear agonies out of himself, so that what he confides41 has no chance of making explicit42 any secrets of our own. There is nothing dangerous about him; we know that he is as safe as we are. We are in conversation, not communion. But how effective and engaging it is!
'Vous ne le voulez pas? Eh bien, je suis contant …'
'Hé, Dieu du ciel, je n'eusse pas pensé
Qu'un seul départ eust causé tant de peine!…'
or the still more casual
'Un jo?eus deplaisir qui douteus l'épointelle,
Quoi l'épointelle! ain?ois le genne et le martelle …'
Of this device of style our own Elizabethans were to make more profitable use than Ronsard. At their best they packed an intensity43 of dramatic significance into conversational44 language, of which Ronsard had no inkling; and even a strict contemporary of his, like Wyatt, could touch cords more intimate by the same means. But, on the other hand, Ronsard never fails of his own effect, which is not to convince us emotionally, but to compel us to listen. His unexpected address to himself or to us is a new ornament45 for us to admire, not a new method for him to express a new thing; and the suggestion of new rhythms that might thus be attained46 is never fully47 worked out.
'Mais tu ne seras plus? Et puis?… quand la paleur
Qui blemist n?tre corps48 sans chaleur ne lumière
Nous perd le sentiment?…
The ampleness of that reverberance is almost isolated49.
Ronsard's resources are indeed few. But he needed few. His simple mind was at ease in machinery50 of commonplaces, and he makes the pleasant impression of one to whom commonplaces are real. He felt them all over again. One imagines him reading the classics—the Iliad in three days, or his beloved companion 'sous le bois amoureux,' Tibullus—with an unfailing delight in all the concatenations of phrase which are foisted51 on to unripe52 youth nowadays in the pages of a Gradus. One might almost say that he saw his loves at second-hand53, through alien eyes, were it not that he faced them with some directness as physical beings, and that the artificiality implied in the criticism is incongruous with the honesty of such a natural man. But apart from a few particulars that would find a place in a census54 paper one would be hard put to it to distinguish Cassandre from Hélène. What charming things Ronsard has to say of either might be said of any charming woman—'le mignard embonpoint de ce sein,'—
'Petit nombril, que mon penser adore,
Non pas mon oeil, qui n'eut oncques ce bien …'
And though he assures Hélène that she has turned him from his grave early style, 'qui pour chanter si bas n'est point ordonné,' the difference is too hard to detect; one is forced to conclude that it is precisely the difference between a court lady and an inn-keeper's daughter. As far as art is concerned the most definite and distinctive55 thing that Ronsard had to say of any of his ladies is said of one to whom he put forward none of his usually engrossing56 pretensions57. It was the complexion58 of Marguerite of Navarre of which he wrote:—
'De vif cinabre estoit faicte sa joue,
Pareille au teint d'un rougissant oeillet,
Ou d'une fraize, alors que dans de laict
Dessus le hault de la cresme se joue.'
That is, whether it belonged to Marguerite or not, a divine complexion. It is the kind of thing that cannot be said about two ladies; the image is too precise to be interchangeable. This may be a reason why it was applied59 to a lady hors concours for Ronsard.
But we need, in fact, seek no reason other than the circumscription60 of Ronsard's poetical61 gifts. They reduce to only two—the gift of convinced commonplace, and the gift of simple melody. His commonplace is genuine commonplace, quite distinct from the tense and pregnant condensation62 of a lifetime of impassioned experience in Dante or Shakespeare; things that would occur to a bookish country gentleman in after-dinner conversation, the sentiments that such a rare and amiable63 person would underscore in his Horace. (From a not unimportant angle Ronsard is a minor64 Horace.) These things are the warp65 of his poetry; they range from the familiar 'Le temps s'en va' to the masterly straightforwardness66 of
'plus heureus celui qui la fera Et femme et mère, en lieu d'une pucelle.'
His melody, likewise, is genuine melody; it is irrepressible. It led him to belie67 his own professed68 seriousness. He could not stop his sonnets69 from rippling70 even when he pretended to passionate71 argument. Life came easily to him; he was never weary of it, at the most he acknowledged that he was 'sao?l de la vie.' It is not surprising, therefore, that his remonstrances72 as the tortured lover have a trick of opening to a delightful tune:—
'Rens-moi mon coeur, rens-moi mon coeur pillarde….'
In another form this melody more closely recalls Thomas Campion:—
'Seule je l'ai veue, aussi je meurs pour elle….'
But to compare Ronsard's sonnet with 'Follow your saint' is to see how infinitely73 more subtle a master of lyrical music was the Elizabethan than the great French lyrist of the Renaissance74. From first to last Ronsard was an amateur.
[SEPTEMBER, 1919.
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1 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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2 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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3 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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4 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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5 dabbles | |
v.涉猎( dabble的第三人称单数 );涉足;浅尝;少量投资 | |
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6 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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7 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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8 tinged | |
v.(使)发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9 ingratitude | |
n.忘恩负义 | |
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10 imperturbable | |
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11 accomplishment | |
n.完成,成就,(pl.)造诣,技能 | |
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12 akin | |
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14 exasperation | |
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15 par | |
n.标准,票面价值,平均数量;adj.票面的,平常的,标准的 | |
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16 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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17 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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18 nausea | |
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19 sonnet | |
n.十四行诗 | |
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20 tedium | |
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21 mere | |
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22 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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23 disports | |
v.嬉戏,玩乐,自娱( disport的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24 naive | |
adj.幼稚的,轻信的;天真的 | |
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25 excellences | |
n.卓越( excellence的名词复数 );(只用于所修饰的名词后)杰出的;卓越的;出类拔萃的 | |
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26 aptitude | |
n.(学习方面的)才能,资质,天资 | |
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27 incongruities | |
n.不协调( incongruity的名词复数 );不一致;不适合;不协调的东西 | |
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28 abated | |
减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
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29 intoxicated | |
喝醉的,极其兴奋的 | |
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30 jingle | |
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31 clement | |
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32 stature | |
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
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33 ensemble | |
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34 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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35 enjoyment | |
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36 allied | |
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37 ingenuousness | |
n.率直;正直;老实 | |
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38 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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39 flea | |
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40 irresistible | |
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41 confides | |
v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的第三人称单数 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等) | |
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42 explicit | |
adj.详述的,明确的;坦率的;显然的 | |
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43 intensity | |
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44 conversational | |
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45 ornament | |
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46 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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47 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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48 corps | |
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50 machinery | |
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52 unripe | |
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53 second-hand | |
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54 census | |
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55 distinctive | |
adj.特别的,有特色的,与众不同的 | |
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56 engrossing | |
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57 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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58 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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59 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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60 circumscription | |
n.界限;限界 | |
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61 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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62 condensation | |
n.压缩,浓缩;凝结的水珠 | |
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63 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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64 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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65 warp | |
vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见 | |
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66 straightforwardness | |
n.坦白,率直 | |
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67 belie | |
v.掩饰,证明为假 | |
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68 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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69 sonnets | |
n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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70 rippling | |
起涟漪的,潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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71 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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72 remonstrances | |
n.抱怨,抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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73 infinitely | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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74 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
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