A Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss: the Use of the Baiser in La Ceppède's Théorèmes
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Modern Languages and Literatures, Department Literatures of May 1994 A Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss: The Use of the Baiser in La Ceppède's Théorèmes Russell J. Ganim University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfacpub Part of the Modern Languages Commons Ganim, Russell J., "A Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss: The Use of the Baiser in La Ceppède's Théorèmes" (1994). Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Literatures. 8. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfacpub/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages and Literatures, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Literatures by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Romance Languages Annual VI (1994) 61 A KISS IS NOT JUST A KISS: THE USE OF BAISER IN LA CEPPÈDE’S THÉORÈMES Russell Ganim University of Nebraska-Lincoln Th e combination of religious and erotic motifs plays a large and Saint John of the Cross transformed profane exaltation role in shaping the artistic experience of the Renaissance. One of the beloved’s beauty into celebrations of saints’ powers and thinks of paintings such as della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ declarations of love for God. In one noted example, Lope re- (1540), as well as Michelangelo’s Last Judgment (1545). Lyr- confi gures Góngora’s consolation of a jilted woman into the ic poetry also provides numerous examples of this aesthetic consolation of the Christ-child (Wardropper 281). bond; among them Petrarch’s “Chiare fresche e dolci acque” Th e resemblance between human and divine love, however, and Ronsard’s “Je veux brûler, pour m’envoler aux cieux.”1 fi nds its most common expression in the erotic. As Alvaro Th e lyric subgenre which perhaps most distinctly follows the Pineda suggests, the relation between eros and agape, derives trend of merging sexual and divine experience is the baiser, or from numerous sources, with the two most important to kiss. Originally secular in nature, the baiser fi rst appeared in Western devotional poetry rooted in Catholicism and Pro- epigram form in the Greek Anthology.2 Baiser was adapted by vençal lyric (295–96). Th e former’s devotion to Mary as the Catullus and Ovid, inspiring what later became the style mi- Mother of God as well as the latter’s equation of love for a gnard of the Renaissance. Jean de La Ceppède’s version of the woman with spiritual ecstasy resulted in a “cult of the lady” baiser in his Th éorèmes exemplifi es the attempt during the late which showed a “desire to escape the rigor of devotional aces- sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to transform secular ticism in favor of sensual pleasure.”4 Wardropper notes that lyric types a lo divino.3 Elsewhere in the Th éorèmes, the poet’s the poetry of St. John of the Cross introduces the most stri- method of blending lyric form and technique with a devo- dent example of sensuality into Spanish religious lyric, with tional topic fi nds expression in sonnets modeled after emblem, poems such as En una noche oscura tracing the journey of the pastourelle, and blason. Baiser, however, is La Ceppède’s most soul toward quasi-sexual union with God (312–13). None- explicit attempt to fuse the carnal and the spiritual, paradoxi- theless, within the a lo divino tradition poets both repress and cally blending a kind of style bas in language and theme with indulge sexual impulse. In some cases, poets try to overcome the lofty, if not transcendental goal of moving his reader to erotic desire with spiritual transcendence, while others appeal receive Christ. Before discussing the poet’s specifi c appro- to the intellect so as to convey a reciprocity between the two. priation of the form, it will be useful to examine the history La Ceppède’s association of physical desire with divine of the baiser, as well as the a lo divino tradition to which La love is also ambiguous. When tempted by the trappings of Ceppède’s baiser belongs. the material universe, the poet/dévot often portrays the inner Until around 1580, the Spanish term “a lo divino” re- anguish of subordinating the carnal to the spiritual.5 Many ferred to religious lyric expressed as “a reworded version of other sonnets strike a balance between intellect and aff ect as a pre-existing secular poem” (Crosbie 11). Critics agree that they engage the reader in the meditative process. Explicit de- near the end of the sixteenth century, a lo divino poetry be- piction of the erotic, though less frequent, still constitutes a gan to denote indirect, rather than direct imitations of secular signifi cant part of the meditant’s spiritual exercise. As for the literature (11). Th e link between sacred and profane works re- sources of the poet’s baiser, it is diffi cult to ascertain if La Cep- vealed itself in the similarity between human and divine love. pède read the poets named above. Given his familiarity with Golden Age poets such as Lope de Vega, Luis de Góngora, the mystical tradition, however, it is quite likely that he at least 1 For Petrarch, see poem 126 of Robert Durling’s Petrarch’s Lyric 4 Here Pineda refers to C. S. Lewis’s Th e Allegory of Love (8, 21–22). Poems. Ronsard’s sonnet may be consulted in Henri and Catherine 5 See, for example, Sonnet 88 of Book One. Here the poet holds up as Weber’s edition of the Amours (107). his inspirational model the adolescent in Mark (14:5l–52),who, while 2 In general, I refer to what the Oxford Companion to Classical attempting to follow Christ to His trial, is stripped of his clothes by Literature calls “a vast collection of short poems, mostly elegiac in Roman soldiers. In the octave of the sonnet in question, La Ceppède nature, ranging in time from the seventh century BC to the tenth equates this clothing with material temptation: century AD” (39). Specifi cally, the part of the Anthology which Maintefois j’ay tenté de vous suivre, ô ma vie, most likely infl uenced Catullus and Ovid was the Garland, a text, Par les sentiers cognus que vous m’avez ouverts; according to Oxford, “compiled by Meleager in the early years of Mais tousjours, mais tousjours, vos ennemis divers the fi rst century BC . contain[ing] poems attributed to some fi fty M’empoignant au linceul m’ont la force ravie. poets from Archilolochus to Meleager himself ” (Howatson, ed. 39). Ores que sainctement vostre Esprit me convie, 3 In France and throughout much of Western Europe, this trend De retracer vos pas, par les pas de ces vers, occurs mainly within the context of the Reformation and Counter- Ce monde, ce charmeur, cet ennemy pervers, Reformation. I shall discuss examples in Favre and Sponde. An excellent Me prenant au manteau veut frustrer mon envie. (255-56) background source in Terence Cave’s Devotional Poetry in France. 62 Russell Ganim, A Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss: Th e Use of the Baiser in La Ceppède’s Th éorèmes knew of St. John of the Cross’s work. Closer inspirations Limite proximiore ducit. come probably from French devotional poets whose direct Cum te rogabo ter tria basia, association between body and spirit fi nd echoes in La Cep- Tu deme septem, nec nisi da duo, pède’s eroticism, Two examples, one from the ninety-eighth Vtrumque nec longum, nec udum: sonnet of Antoine Favre’s Centurie, the other from Jean de Aualia teligero Diana Sponde’s Stances de la Cène show the erotic subtext prevalent Dat casta fratri, qualia dat patri in devotional lyric: Experta nullos nata cupidines. (110) . se donner vif en pain, pour de chair me paistre! [Kiss me: but not too much. / Whisper not always in my Me faisant tant de biens ne veux tu rien de moy? ear. / Make me not wary of the touch / Of soft arms ever Et que puis-je t’off rir si je ne l’ay de toy! near. // Th e rarer joys the sweeter are./ In love there should Que veux tu donc, mon coeur? rien plus? qu’encore il due measure be. / If pleasure is prolonged too far / It breeds t’aime satiety, // If for nine kisses I should cry, / Pay me the two Las! quant au coeur je l’ay: mais si froid qu’il n’est point and leave the seven. / And let the two be quick and dry / Capable d’un tel feu, si tu ne fais que joint And not with rapture given (Routledge 67)] Au tien, ton sang bouillant l’eschauff e tout de mesme. (Cave 215)6 Although in many instances Secundus contradicts this sanitized depiction of the kiss, one remarks in it a similar- And from Sponde: ity with the eff ort to reveal a kind of innocence within the Embrasse estroictement ce corps brillant de gloire, erotic. Here, the “pure” or “natural” in the erotic transcends Embrasse-le, mon ame, et face de croire. the prurient. Within this context, then, I argue that La Cep- Mange-le tout entier, come tu doibs manger, pède adapts the baiser subgenre as a means of exploiting the Hume ce sang vermeil respandu de ses veines, . erotic in framing divine mystery. While it cannot be determined if La Ceppède knew the Or cependant qu’au Ciel ceste double substance works of Secundus, it is certain that he read Ronsard, Se- Saoule l’avidité de ta ferme asseurance, cundus’s principal imitator in France.