La Monomachie de David et de Goliath Ensemble plusieurs autres oeuvres poetiques. byJoachim Du Bellay; E. CaldariniReview by: Barbara Sher TinsleyThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), p. 236Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2539952 .

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236 The Sixteenth Century Journal

La Monomachie de David et de Goliath Ensemble plusieurs autres oeuvres poetiques, by Joachim Du Bellay; ed. E. Caldarini. Geneva: Librairie Droz S.A., 1981. 216 pp.

E. Caldarini's critical edition of Du Bellay's poetry will enable even the uninitiated reader of this star of the Pleides to develop a feel for the subtlety, irony, and emotional depth of this Renaissance poet. Most of the poems in the volume appeared for the first time in 1552 and three others were added in the second edition of 1560. Caldarini's 39 page Introduction posits a unity which lies beneath apparent contradictions of style and theme, not only in these but in earlier works, a unity Caldarini describes as "depouillement" or the bedrock which remains after biographical excrescences-the poet's sickness, the vanities of the court, etc. -have been stripped away. What this underlying unity is may be less easy to determine than Caldarini sug- gests, for Du Bellay once wrote that a poet hides truth "sous mille fictions...." The Introduc- tion provides clues to guide the reader. There is for example the possibility that a scriptural maxim may furnish a theme, as Matthew 23:12 does for the David et Goliath: pride goeth before a fall. Du Bellay was anxious to establish a Christian epic, unlike his friend Ronsard who preferred pagan themes. To ignore this motivation is, Caldarini suggests, to make the common critical error and discount this particular collection as an insignificant and random collection of commemorative pieces. Not so, says Caldarini. One must not succumb to Du Bellay's own apology for these "derniers fruicts" of his poetic garden, a comment made in the dedication to Jean Morel in the 1552 edition and included here in the Appendix. Caldarini says Ice prtendu affaiblissement de l'inspiration" is belied by that steady unity of purpose which these poems reveal, a unity achieved through "rapport dialectique" if not through each piece.

A second clue to unity is DuBellay's rejection of negativism, even where as in "Les deux marguerites" death seems absolute, there is yet the positive re-statement of John 18:36 which suggests that as the kingdom of God is extraterrestrial, so the house of Valois will continue to influence their posterity from above. (!) Similarly where in the "La complainte du desespere" (510 lines of versification with 9 pages of critical notation) the poet protests against unmerited woes, the purpose is yet dialectical, and the "Hymne Chrestien" and the "Discours sur la louange de la vertu, etc." which follow counter such paganism with the Christian Viewpoint. The reader is led to view these poems as an attempt-successful in the critic's opinion-to syn- thesize classical with Christian culture, via a neoplatonic esthetic retaining much of medieval mystique, the "cupio dissolvi." The culmination of this line of development is the theme of "refus," rejection of worldly fame and the growing concern for spiritual truth obtainable only through death, the prelude to true Being.

Caldarini is generally convincing in his analysis, though occasionally he may appear wide the mark, as when referring to the "passivity" of the "Discours sur la louange, etc."-an ironic poem which urges avoidance of the obvious temptations of court life and the less obvious ones of savant circles in order to arrive at self-knowledge. Spiritual athletics rather than "passivity" might more appropriately describe the poet's stance. But this volume deserves a prominent place amongst the Du Ballay critical literature. It also suggests to the sixteenth century student of court life the fact that poets quite as much as court preachers could be keepers of the collec- tive conscience, and quite as much as court historians, recorders of collective folly.

Barbara Sher Tinsley Stanford

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