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ANN ARROR.MI 48106 13 BFDFORD ROW, LONDON WC 1 R 4FJ. FNGLAND BOO 1684 ARMBRUSTFk, CAROL ANN DEATH IN TMt POETRY OF JEAN DE SPUNDE JEAN—BAPTISIE CHASSIGNFT. THE OHIO STATE UNIVcRSIIY, P H .D ., 1979 C OPR • 1979 ;RMFiRUS Tt. R , CAROL ANN UrtversJtv . M k jdrBms International N z e e s r o a d , ANN a r b o r , m i a b io b © 1979 CAROL ANN ARMBRUSTER ALL RICHTS RESERVED DEATH IN THE POETRY OF JEAN DE SPONDE AND JEAN-BAPTISTE CHASSIGNET DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Carol Ann Armbruster, B.A., M.A. * * * * The Ohio State University 1979 Read ing Commi ttee: Approved By Robert D. Cottrell Micheline Besnard-Coursodon Charles G.S. Williams Advisor Department of Romance Languages and Literatures To my mother, Christine and Sarah ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Robert Cottrell and my readers Drs. Micheline Besnard-Coursodon and Charles G.S. Williams for their reading of this disser­ tation and for their very helpful suggestions. I would especially like to thank my family for their patient support and understanding throughout some very trying years. A special thanks also goes to Josette and Chuck Wilburn for providing a home in Columbus and a very special friend­ ship. iii VITA December 14, 1947. Born - Berea, Ohio 1969 ..................... B.A., magna cum laude, The Cleveland State University, Cleveland Ohio 1971 ................... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1969-197 3 ............... University Fellowship, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1970-197 4 ............... Teaching Associate, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1974-1976............... The Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 197 5-1977............... Lecturer, part-time, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 197 5 ..... ......... Participant in Charles S. Singleton seminar "Dante: A Reading of the Commedia," Folger Institute of Renaissance and Eighteenth-Century Studies, Washington, D.C. 1976-1977............... The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 1977 ................... Participant in H.W, Janson seminar "The World of Donatello," Folger Institute of Renaissance and Eighteenth-Century studies, Washington, D.C. iv 1979 Visiting Lecturer, Denison University, Granville, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French Language and Literature Sixteenth-Century Literature. Professor Robert D. Cottrell Seventeenth-Century Literature. Professors Hugh M. Davidson and Charles G.S. Williams Minor Field: Italian Language and Literature. Professor Albert N. Mancini v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION....................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................. iii VITA.............................................. iv INTRODUCTION.............. ...................... 1 PART I: THE THEMATICS OF DEATH............... 6 Chapter I. The Late Middle Ages................... 7 II. Evangelism.............................. 30 III. Renaissance............................. 58 IV. Calvinism............................... 30 PART II: THE DEATH POETRY OF JEAN DE SPONDE AND JEAN-BAPTISTE CHASSIGNET............. 92 Chapter I. The "Stances de la Mort" and the "Sonnets sur le mesne subject" of Jean de Sponde.. 93 II. The Mespris de la vie et consolation contre la mort of Jean-Baptiste C has signet.' 161 CONCLUSION ................................. 220 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................... 230 APPENDIX......................................... 243 Vi INTRODUCTION Death being an issue of central concern to man, it is a fundamental issue in many kinds of discourse and systems of organized thinking. Philosophies, theologies, religions and, of course, thanatologies are founded on it. In poetic discourse, death occupies an equally central place by serving as one of the more basic poetic themes, along with others such as love, time and truth. Themes as basic as death, however, are broad, heavily abstract and often elusive subjects. Frequently it is by means of smaller, more specific sub-themes that one approaches such a subject and attempts to define and/or discuss it. The sub-themes chosen and developed reflect both a conception of the subject and a reaction to it. During the late Middle Ages, from about the middle of the fourteenth century throughout the fifteenth, French literature was particularly rich in works dealing with death. Concentration on the theme of death was remarkably intense and reflected considerable emotional preoccupation with the subject. According to Huizingua, "No other epoch has laid so much stress as the expiring Middle Ages on the thought of death.Theodore Spencer qualifies the late 1 2 medieval concentration on death even further: "It is hardly an exaggeration to say that in Northern Europe the 2 whole fifteenth century was frenzied about death." This intense interest in the phenomenon of death and in death as a subject of poetic discourse led to a rich development of the theme of death in literature. In late medieval poetry many death sub-themes were created and developed, sub-themes which would continue to appear in poetry throughout the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth century man maintained an equally intense interest in the phenomenon of death, and in both the visual and poetic arts, death continued to be a dominant theme. As Marc Bensimon says, "L’homme du XVIe 3 ^ cdtoyait la mort chaque instant," and Hans-Joachim Lope, commenting on late sixteenth-century poetry on death, speaks of "une tradition jamais vraiment interrompue depuis le A 4 moyen age." In addition to using many of the medieval sub-themes, sixteenth-century poets developed others which reflected changing philosophical and religious attitudes towards death as well as different poetic treatments of the theme. In a survey of late medieval and sixteenth-century French poetry one can ascertain a definite evolution of the theme of death. Two works in particular can bear witness to this fact: Edelgard DuBruck's The Theme of Death in French Poetry of the Middle Ages and the 3 Renaissance and Christine Martineau-Genieys' Le Theme de la mort dans la po£sie frangaise de 1450 & 1550.5 By the end of the sixteenth century, then, a poet using death as the main theme of his poetry was writing, and one can assume writing very consciously, within a well established and well-known tradition. His selection and use of particular death sub-themes and his poetic treatment of them made a statement on the subject as well as on the poetic treatment of it. Two poets, Jean de Sponde and Jean-Baptiste Chassignet, are particularly known tor their poetry on death. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze and compare their death poetry and to contribute to a better understanding of each poet's position within the tradition of early French poetry on death. Both Sponde and Chassignet wrote their poetry on death during the last two decades of the sixteenth century, and the two collections of poetry were published within only six years of each other. Sponde's "Stances de la mort" and "Sonnets sur le mesme subject," were first published in 1588 as an appendix to his Meditations sur les Pseaumes XIII. ou LIII. XLVIII. L. & LXII. Chassignet's Mespris de la vie et consolation contre la mort was first pub­ lished in 1594.** The similarity of the main theme of the poetry and the contemporaneity of the poets makes a comparison of Sponde