A Study of the Work of Guy Le Fevre De La
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A STUDY OF THE WORK OF GUY LE FEVRE DE LA BODERIE (1541-1598) by MAUREEN ANN CROMIE B.A., University of British Columbia, 1958 M.A., University of British Columbia, 1966 A THESIS SUMBITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of French We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1971 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree tha permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of French The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date April 1971 ii ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to present an analysis of the work of a late French Renaissance poet and linguist, Guy Le Fevre de La Boderie. Considered as a Christian Kabbalist, he is placed in the con• text of the continuing Florentine Neo-Platonist syncretist tradition. The thematic content of his original works is studied, and the relationship of his translations to those works is established. La Boderie's use of symbolic imagery is shown to constitute a further indication of his adherence to the Neo-Platonist tradition. In conclusion, La Boderie is shown to have sought in the multiplicity of traditions cited by syncretizing Renaissance writers a proof of the unity of truth and the foundations for a universal harmony in his age of civil and religious discord. Throughout his work La Boderie appears as a representative, albeit a highly singular one, of a Platonic-Hermetic orientation of thought common to many Renaissance writers. Drawing on the supposed iii ancient wisdom of the prisca theologia for Catholic apologetic purposes of unification, he found also in the Neo-Platonic and Kabbalist traditions a store of imagery to which he attributed a symbolic value. By means of these symbols he interpreted the "veiled truth" of a divinely ordained universal harmony. Like the Florentine Neo-Platonists, La Boderie revered the legendary Orpheus as a divinely inspired poet-priest-prophet whose musical "effects" were ethically influential. He attributed to himself, as learned and virtuous poet, the role of the "new Orpheus." Through his own work as well as through his exhortations to contemporary poets to adopt a new Christian lyricism, La Boderie endeavoured to bring about a moral and spiritual renewal in his compatriots. Thus La Boderie stands out among the writers in the Platonic-Hermetic tradition both for his constant use of its themes and imagery and also for his conception of a new Christian poetic which he attempted to illustrate by reference to that tradition. In La Boderie's two major works are to be found a unique syncretization of themes and imagery drawn for the most part from the Neo-Platonist and Kabbalist traditions. The Encyclie, a work of post- Tridentine Catholic apologetics, uses the prisca theologia to prove that there is one truth only, however variously it may have been concealed by the "veils" of imagery under which diverse religious leaders have both concealed it from the profane and revealed it to the initiate. The Galllade, a work of mystico-nationalist history, adopts concepts associated with the prisca theologia and Guillaume Postel's inter• pretations of esoteric traditions to show that France is the home of iv all post-diluvean knowledge and that the French king is divinely elected to be universal monarch in a new and harmonious age of man's spiritual renewal. La Boderie's shorter pieces, like the prefaces to his translations, reinforce these expressions of his vision of a universal harmony which it is the task of the true poet to apprehend and to interpret. Although his personal achievement as poet is acknowledged to have fallen short of the Orphic aims he propounded, it is proposed that Guy Le Fevre de La Boderie merits consideration. His attempt, as a humanist scholar and poet, to find in esoteric traditions of supposed antiquity a basis for a spiritual renewal commensurate with the glory of the restitution of arts and letters marks him as typical of an important current of Renaissance thought. His unique presentation of multiple facets of esoteric traditions distinguishes him as an individual writer. V TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE MAN AND THE INTELLECTUAL CLIMATE OF HIS WORK 9 A. HIS LIFE 9 B. HIS CONCEPT OF HIS HISTORICAL ROLE 13 C. HIS SOURCES 27 III. THE THEMATIC CONTENT OF THE WORK: ORIGINAL WORKS 63 A. L'ENCYCLIE 66 B. LA GALLIAPE 104 C. HYMNES ECCLESIASTIQUES 139 D. DIVERSES MESLANGES POETIQUES 144 IV. THE THEMATIC CONTENT OF THE WORK: TRANSLATIONS 162 A. LE TRAICTE DU NOUVEAU COMETE 162 B. LA CONFUSION DE LA SECTE DE MUHAMED 168 vi C. L'HARMONIE DU MONDE 169 D. DE LA RELIGION CHRESTIENNE; LA HARAHGUE DE LA DIGNITE DEL'HOMME 178 E. DISCOURS DE L'HONNESTE AMOUR 180 F. LES TROIS LIVRES DE LA VIE 181 G. DE LA NATURE DES DIEUX 184 H. NOVUM TESTAMENTUM 186 V. THE SYMBOLIC IMAGERY OF THE WORK 194 VI. CONCLUSION 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY 235 APPENDIX 244 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The writer wishes to express her warmest thanks to Dr. Alistair R. MacKay, of the University of British Columbia, for his perceptive criticism and patient encouragement not only in the writing of this thesis but also over the years of her graduate study. 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The poetry produced in France during the middle years of the sixteenth century wars of religion shows a significant change in orientation of the poet's purpose from that illustrated by the poets of the Pldiade and their epigones. A concern for religious and spiritual matters is seen to bring about a modification from "scientific" or "philosophical" subjects treated in the works of such earlier poets as Peletier du Mans, Sceve, Belleau or even Ronsard, to the apologetics of a Du Bartas. Furthermore, a search for "inwardness" in religious matters finds expression in the new Christian lyricism of such poets as Sponde or La Ceppede. Although the former "scientific" apologetic poetry has received less attention than the lyrical poetry of the latter so-called "baroque" poets, more innovative in form, many scholars since Boase's pioneer work on Sponde have attempted to reassess in a more positive light post- Pleiade poetry in general. 2 It is the first purpose of the present work to situate the poetic production of a little-known Counter-Reformation poet and apologist, Guy Le Fevre de La Boderie (1541-1598), in the context of the modification of the poet's role during the last third of the sixteenth century in France. La Boderie's work is dedicated throughout to the cause of the Counter-Reformation. At the time of the Council of Trent in 1566 La Boderie was a participant, as the pre-eminent orientalist of his day, in the Polyglot Bible of Antwerp commissioned by Philip II of Spain. Subsequent -to publication in 1571 of his first poetic work designed to persuade Protestants and free-thinkers to turn to the one true Church, he was secretary and interpreter to the Due d'Alencon, younger brother of Charles IX and Henry III. In this royal household La Boderie took it upon himself to preach with ever-increasing fervour the somewhat unorthodox message of Guillaume Postel to the effect that the French king had been divinely chosen not only as universal monarch but also as leader of the universal Catholic Church. Thus La Boderie's apologetic purpose may be seen as closely related to the spirit of the "confr^ries" of Counter-Reformation "politiques" such as the "Chevaliers de 1'Esprit Saint" associated with Henry III. La Boderie's association with Baif's Academy of Poetry and Music, established in 1570, can only have enhanced his relationship with the Counter-Reformation group of Henry Ill's Palace Academy. His imitations of "ecclesiastical hymns" and of the Psalms, designed to counteract the effects of Protestant translations of the Psalms, are witness not only to his ties with the 3 Baif Academy but also to the basic purpose of his work to effect moral and spiritual reform in the context of the Counter-Reformation. In short, La Boderie may be considered as a Counter-Reformation writer both because of his stated purpose in writing and because of the milieu for which he wrote. A just evaluation of La Boderie's purpose requires, however, a broader view of the Renaissance religious spirit. La Boderie's presentation of Catholic doctrine is based on the syncretizing tradition of the Florentine Neo-Platonists, from which he chose the figure of Orpheus the poet-priest-prophet to represent his personal role as spiritually influential poet. Syncretistic presentation of the ancient wisdom found in the prisca theologia, which was supposed to embody Christian doctrine, is coloured in La Boderie's works largely by Guillaume Postel's interpretation of its Kabbalist element and by Postel's personal illuminism. Thus the main body of the present work is an attempt to show in La Boderie's poetic production his adoption of Florentine Neo-Platonist, Kabbalist and Postellian themes and imagery. La Boderie's presentation of a syncretistic Christian apologetics based on the Platonic-Hermetic tradition, although singular in its details, is far from unique in its general spirit.