Virgilian Identities in the French Renaissance

Description

New interpretations of the ways in which early modern French literature was influenced by, and responded to, the works of Virgil. Virgil's works, principally the 'Bucolics', the 'Georgics', and above all the 'Aeneid', were frequently read, translated and rewritten by authors of the French Renaissance. The contributors to this volume show how readers and writers entered into a dialogue with the texts, using them to grapple with such difficult questions as authorial, political and communitarian identities. Rather than simply imitating them, the writers are shown as vibrantly engaging with them, in a "conversation" central to the definition of literature at the time. In addition to discussing how Virgil influenced questions of identity for such authors as Jean Lemaire de Belges, Joachim du Bellay, Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard and Jacques Yver, the volume also offers perspectives on Virgil's French translators, on how French writers made quite different appropriations of Homer and Virgil, and on Virgil's reception in the arts. It provides a fresh understanding and assessment of how, in sixteenth-century France, Virgil and his texts moved beyond earlier allegorical interpretations to enter into the ideas espoused by a new and national literature. List of Illustrations vii Foreword / Timothy Hampton ix List of Contributors xi Acknowledgements xv Note on Editions and Translations xvi Introduction / Phillip John Usher and Isabelle Fernbach 1 Part I: Pastoral and Georgic Modes 1. Virgil and Marot: Imitation, Satire and Personal Identity / Bernd Renner 19 2. Virgil’s Bucolic Legacy in Jacques Yver’s 'Le Printemps d’Yver' / Margaret Harp 39 3. On the Magical Statues in Lemaire de Belges’s 'Le Temple d’honneur et de vertus' / Michael Randall 59 4. Temples of Virtue: Worshipping Virgil in Sixteenth-Century France / Stéphanie Lecompte (Translated by Penelope Meyers) 73 5. From Copy to 'Copia': Imitation and Authorship in Joachim Du Bellay’s 'Divers Jeux Rustiques' (1558) / Isabelle Fernbach 93 Part II: The Epic Mode 6. Virgilian Space in Renaissance French Translations of the 'Aeneid' / Valerie Worth-Stylianou 117 7. Virgil versus Homer: Reception, Imitation, Identity in the French Renaissance / Philip Ford 141 8. The 'Aeneid' in the 1530s: Reading with the Limoges Enamels / Phillip John Usher 161 9. At the Helm, Second in Command: Du Bellay and 'La Mort de Palinure' / Corinne Noirot-Maguire 189 10. Du Bellay’s Dido and the Translation of Nation / Todd W. Reeser 213 11. 'Avec la terre on possède la guerre': The Problem of Place in Ronsard’s 'Franciade' / Katherine Maynard 237 Index 257