Music for Poetry in France (1550–1580)

Abstract

The year 1549 is a familiar one to all those interested in sixteenth-century French poetry because it marks the date of publication of the Deffence et illustration de la langue francoyse which stands as a sort of manifesto of the nascent Pléiade. In this document of Italian inspiration Du Bellay repudiated most of the indigenous poetic forms in favor of the classical ode and eclogue and the Petrarchan sonnet. In the second part of the work he exhorted his young poet thus: ‘Chante moy ces odes incongnues encor’ de la Muse Francoyse, d'un luc, bien accordé au son de la lyre Grecque et Romaine’ (II, iv).