Lyric in the Renaissance: from Petrarch to Montaigne

228 Pages·2015·12.088 MB·English

by  Langer, Ullrich;Montaigne, Michel de;Petrarca, Francesco

LYRIC IN THE RENAISSANCE
Moving from a definition of the lyric to the innovations introduced
by Petrarch’s poetic language, this study goes on to propose a new
reading of several French poets (Charles d’Orléans, Ronsard, and
Du Bellay), and a re-evaluation of Montaigne’s understanding of
the most striking poetry and its relation to his own prose. Instead
of relying on conventional notions of Renaissance subjectivity, it
locates recurring features of this poetic language that express a turn
to the singular and that herald lyric poetry’s modern emphasis on
the utterly particular. By combining close textual analysis with more
modern ethical concerns this study establishes clear distinctions
between what poets do and what rhetoric and poetics say they do.
It shows how the tradition of rhetorical commentary is insufficient
in accounting for this startling effectiveness of lyric poetry, manifest
in Petrarch’s Rime sparse, and the collections of the best poets writing
after him.
Ullrich Langer is Alfred Glauser Professor of French and
Director of the Center for Early Modern Studies at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison. He has published widely in the field of French
and Italian literature, and is the editor of The Cambridge Companion
to Montaigne (Cambridge, 2005) and the author of Penser les formes
du plaisir littéraire à la Renaissance (2009).

LYRIC IN THE

RENAISSANCE
From Petrarch to Montaigne
ULLRICH LANGER
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
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© Ullrich Langer 2015
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2015
Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Langer, Ullrich.
Lyric in the Renaissance : from Petrarch to Montaigne / Ullrich Langer.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-11028-1 (hardback)
1. French poetry–16th century–History and criticism. 2. Montaigne, Michel de,
1533–1592–Criticism and interpretation. 3. Lyric poetry–History and
criticism–Theory, etc. 4. Petrarca, Francesco, 1304–1374–Language.
5. Particularity (Aesthetics) I. Title. II. Title: Petrarch to Montaigne.
PQ418.L35 2015
841′.309–dc23
2015003683
ISBN 978-1-107-11028-1 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
For Anne

Contents

Acknowledgments page viii
1 Introduction 1
2 Petrarch and the existential singular 21
3 Minimal lost worlds: The rondeaux of Charles d’Orléans 49
4 Ronsard’s singular erotic reciprocity (Les Amours de Cassandre) 73
5 Singularity as emptiness: Du Bellay’s Regrets 102
6 Montaigne and his “sublime” lyric 125
7 Conclusion 151
Notes 160
Bibliography 201
Index 214
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Acknowledgments

My gratitude for generous readings and help in this dense terrain that is
the lyric, Petrarchan or classical or modern, go to Albert Russell Ascoli,
François Cornilliat, Heather Dubrow, Edwin Duval, William Fitzgerald,
James Helgeson, David Hildner, Ernesto Livorni, Kristin Phillips-Court,
Anne Theobald, and Steven Winspur. I have profited from questions,
objections, and puzzlement expressed by many of my students and col-
leagues, and I have learned from comments by and exchanges with Grace
Armstrong, Jonathan Culler, Scott Francis, Deborah Fried, Francis Goyet,
Olivier Guerrier, Steven Hutchinson, Douglas Kelly, William J. Kennedy,
Virginia Krause, Kathleen P. Long, Alison Lovell, Jan Miernowski, and
David Sedley. Linda Bree has been a patient and persistent guide, Anna
Bond most helpful in the intricacies of publication. Laurent Ferri and
Patrick J. Stevens of the Cornell University library have been encour-
aging and sure experts of the incomparable Fiske collection of Renaissance
Petrarch material. I am thankful as well to the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, for a research leave and to the Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation for valuable material support during the past few years, with-
out either of which this project would have taken much longer to come
to fruition.
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