> Joachim du Bellay, Les Regrets et autres Œuvres poétiques, suivis des Antiquitez de Rome. Plus un Songe ou Vision sur le mesme subject. Texte établi par J. Jolliffe, introduit et commenté par M. A. Screech. Genève, Librairie Droz, Textes Littéraires Français, 1966. Un vol. 11 x 18 de 338 p.
Se reporter au compte rendu de Yves GIRAUD
In: Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, 70e Année, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 1970), pp. 116-119… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k55679961/f118.item

Read these in Oevres Francoises (LeMerre: Paris, 1866) 2 vols. In sonnet 76 he advises against desiring praise: Dispraise has more truth than praise, which makes you say what you don't believe. President Trump, four and a half centuries later, should listen to the great French poet; should ignore the flattery he requires, since no-one believes, not even the flatterer, the flattery they spout.
DuBellay's 67th sonnet is spoken by a Know-it-all. (Maybe the US prez is again addressed.) What he knows is stereotypes: vain Neapolitans, shifty Venenetians, usurer Florentines, lazy Romans, unruly Brits, brave Scots, traitor Burguignons, haughty Spaniards, drunken Thudes. [Think that's Westphalia, but...your guess?] He lists all the traits he despises, including his own imperfections, but most of all, he hates a Know-it-all.
Joachim writes a war of poetry and ignorance, "La Musagnocomachia" (I.139-43), but also an amusing old man courting a young woman, "L'anterotique de la vielle et de la juene amie,"
Vielle qui as, Ô vielle Beste!
Plus d'yeux, que de cheveaux au Teste. (lines 11-12)
Love this line: So old he has more eyes than hairs on his head.
DuBellay's "Defense et illustration de la langue Francoise" recommends following Greek and Latin examples--like the 19 different poetic forms that Horace uses, not forms like rondeau, ballad, virelais, rhyme royale which "corrupt the taste in our language." These very forms, thrown out of France by the Pleiade he represented, were welcomes into English. (I.p38) This "Defense" I quoted in my Ph.D. on poetic criticism in verse, for example, DuBellay's own "Contre Les Petraquistes" (see my This Critical Age, published U MI 1981). He says he's forgotten how the art of Petrarchising, of your beauties like pearls, crystal, marble and fine gold. He'd rather speak frankly of Love, without flattering her and without disguising himself. Disguising hellish passions in a Paradise of fictions--such empty paintings.
In contrast, "Of your beauty I'd say, if my eye does not judge foolishly, your beauty is equal to your goodness, your distinction."
His sonnet 85 begins, "Flatter un crediteur, pour son terme allonger," which I adapted to
my graduate school experience, in translation addressed to my fellow student, Ben.
To flatter the professor, quote his phrases,
Mimic him so he will think you're grand,
Discussing neither politics nor raises
Until you know just where he takes a stand;
Not to waste your health on too much laughing,
Nor to make unprofitable quips;
Not to tell anyone all you’re thinking,
While thinking least about the prof’s own field.
Know eccentricities, know the tester;
As much as you have clout to wield,,
Wield it. Challenge criticisms, make ‘em yield.
Take every course for grades, keep strict account:
Here it is, my friend Ben, I calculate
All I’ve learned five years post-graduate.

This exactly happened, with a different fellow grad student who actually memorized the Norton Anthology intro's by a professor on both our committees. The old prof was so impressed to hear his own words, he actually got that student a job at an Ivy institution. For my orals, the next day, I had neglected to memorize the old guy's intro's, so I did not get an Ivy job.
DuBellay lost both his parents early, but was raised well-connected, in a family that included Cardinal--for whom he eventually worked as a clerk and bookeeper for a couple years in Rome. Some of the sonnets he wrote there were translated into English by Edmund Spenser. DuBellay met Ronsard by chance, both around 25, in an inn nearing Poitiers. They would go on to Paris, where they lived for years and formed the Pleiade. ( )

Texte établi par J. Jolliffe, introduit et commenté par M. A. Screech.

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