Amphion Orator. Michael Taormina

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СКАЧАТЬ poetry? Even the more seductive theoretical approaches inspired by Bachelard or Genette miss the mark, as they mistakenly assume poetry’s full-fledged emancipation from patronage, when in fact it was taking its first steps toward literary autonomy only at the end of the seventeenth century. Norbert Elias in The Court Society does well to remind us that what modern readers too often take to be purely esthetic values were perceived by early moderns also as “the finely shaded expressions of social qualities” (Elias 58). The pleasure of the esthetic, of play, simultaneously served other ends—social and political ends. If poetry in the early seventeenth century was a game, it was a dangerous one. The claim that poets were minor rhetoricians, or that poetry occupied a minor place in the res literaria [literary canon], is belied by the political persecution of Théophile de Viau for a sonnet. If nothing was really at stake in the writing of poetry, then why did anyone take the trouble to notice? By the same token, the stark contrast between the high ambition sounded in Malherbe’s odes and his deprecating remarks about poets and poetry needs to be taken in context. As Racan himself observes of the master: “His greatest happiness was to entertain his friends Racan, Colmby, Yvrande and others, with his contempt for all those things which the world most esteems” (Racan, Malherbe 33). Such disdain for poetry and poets was surely ironic, an aristocratic pose meant to shock and to delight close friends. Malherbe’s sardonic sense of humor is not a reliable indication of his true feelings, or, if it is, must be read in reverse. He was likely parodying the reductive view of the poet’s role in French society, one which neither he nor his friends shared—at least, that is, before Racan became devout. So, while trying to avoid the mistake of giving poetry too central a place in early seventeenth-century France, this book nevertheless rests on the claim that poetry was an important ornament wielded by the powerful for social and political ends.

      Part I, “Praising the Great Soulmagnanimitygreat soul,” sets up the social, political, and rhetorical framework for the close reading of the odes in Part II. Chapter 1, “Literary Patronage,” shows how the magnanimitymagnanimity of Malherbe’s royal patron, Henri IV, influences the entire sequence’s conception of audience. Ethosethos is the rhetorical tool that allows the poet to adapt himself and his poetic discourse to the monarch, whose two bodies, personal and collective, determine the royal odes’ construction of a new national communitynationnational community. Chapter 2, “The Evolution of Noble Identitynobilityidentity,” looks to the changes affecting noble identitynobilityidentity in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to explain the centrality of virtuevirtue in the royal odes. The analysis of Aristotelian magnanimitymagnanimity in particular reveals an unsuspected logical consistency and political ground underlying these encomiasticencomiumencomiastic poetry poems. The praise for Henri IV’s magnanimitymagnanimity justifies his accession to the throne but also transforms the king into a quasi-divine hero. Chapter 3, “The Search for Royal Eloquence,” the longest of these preliminary chapters, situates the royal odes relative to Gallican and JesuiteloquenceJesuit eloquenceeloquence. It examines the hybrid genus dicendi of the odes, their accessory political functionpolitical function, and their incorporation of the rhetorical methods of wonderwonder in support of Henri’s ideological program. To grasp Malherbe’s idea of eloquenceeloquence, the roles of phronēsisphronēsis [practical wisdomphronēsispractical wisdom], moral virtuevirtue, elocutiostyleelocutio [style] and the emotionemotions are analyzed. The “admirable style” is not wholly rejected but rather modified by a CiceroCiceronian AtticismCiceroAtticism tinged with the suggestiveness and emotionemotional intensity of HellenisticstyleHellenistic plainstyleplainness. While owing more to the polish and abundance of Isocrates, Malherbe still borrows from the Longinian sublime. Powerful figures of thoughtfigures of thought underpin the self-description of the royal odes as portraitethosportraits portraitMinervaof characterportraits of character capable of changing readers’ perceptions of the monarch. The result of such close rhetorical analysis is to show on what basis the speaker of the odes becomes a model subject of the new nationnation.

      Part II, “The Sequence of Royal Odes,” the heart of the book, demonstrates the underlying unity of the corpus by performing a close reading of each ode from start to finish and in chronological order:

      À la Reine sur sa bienvenue en France (1600; 1601);

      Prière pour le Roi allant en Limousin (1605; 1607);

      Ode sur l’attentat commis en la personne de sa majesté (1605; 1606);

      Ode au feu Roi sur l’heureux succès du voyage de Sedan (1606; 1607);

      À Monseigneur le duc de BellegardeBellegarde, Roger de Saint-Lary de Termes, seigneur de (1608; 1609);

      Sur la mort de Henri le Grand (1610; 1630);

      À la Reine sur les heureux succès de sa régence (1610; 1611);

      À la Reine mère du roi pendant sa régence (1613; 1621);

      Pour la Reine mère du roi pendant sa régence (unfinished 1613; 1630);

      Pour le Roi allant châtier la rébellion des Rochelois (1627; 1635).31

      The number of odes examined here expands the corpus studied by David Lee RubinRubin, David Lee from seven to ten, adding the shorter Horatian odes “Sur la mort de Henri le Grand” and “À la Reine mère du roi pendant sa régence” as well as the long fragment “Pour la Reine mère du roi pendant sa régence.” The expansion is justified by the intertextual motifs woven throughout the sequence, that is to say, the image of the ship of stateship of state and/or images of flood and storm, which lead an attentive reader to infer the overarching mythological questhero cyclequest. Such active participation is a figure of thought known as emphasisfigures of thoughtemphasis or significatiofigures of thoughtsignificatio (Quintilian 8.3.83; 9.2.64; Rhet. ad HerenCiceroRhetorica ad Herennium. 4.53.67 ff.), and it is how a reader would have become implicated in the political adventurehero cycleadventure and would have undergone the desired cognitive and affective modifications, that is, the movement from a partisan point of view to a collective national sentimentnationnational sentiment. This second half of the book therefore closely examines the argument and style of each ode, showing how the themes, imagery, and exampleexamples of each are fitted to the particular historical occasion as well as to the sequence’s overarching mythological pattern. Ethosethos, virtuevirtue, and the resources of elocutiostyleelocutio remain the guiding principles by which to explore these multiple connections.

      With Malherbe’s royal odes placed in their proper historical context, meaningful intentions emerge from their stylistic choices. Such intentions have less to do with what Malherbe meant to say than with what he did say and what that implies when considered against the political, social, and rhetorical backdrop. Every poem, every metaphormetaphor, is treated as an intentional object, that is, something purposefully constructed. This approach respects the Aristotelian distinction between actions and products and leaves the poet’s psychological intentions in the realm of speculation. It treats the stylistic choices evident in the text as decisions whose meaning and implication become plain once they have been set in their original context. The resonances of Malherbe’s odes with the pamphlet propaganda of the Wars of ReligionWars of Religion, generously cited in Myriam YardeniYardeni, Myriam’s La Conscience nationale en France pendant les guerres de religion (1559-1598), were especially illuminating. Malherbe’s decision to compose odes in the grandstylegrand style, rather than prose pamphlets, on behalf of his Bourbon patrons, most likely had to do with the alleged permanence and universal appeal of poetry. The immortality and universality which the royal odes claim for themselves are recruited to serve the greater goodgreater good of the monarchy and the nationnation.

      That said, the revelation of the hero cyclehero cycle—an ahistorical structure—came as a complete surprise. David Lee RubinRubin, David Lee must be credited with first seeing that the mythological themes informing Malherbe’s first ode to Marie de Médicis could be extended to the entire СКАЧАТЬ