Robert Garnier et le thème de l’immortalité de l’âme: l’invention poétique du chant choral aux vers 1323–1377 de La Troade

Abstract

This article examines French-language sources used by Garnier in his rewriting of Seneca’s celebrated choral ode (Troades 371–402) situated at the mid-point of his own 1579 Troade. In the tragic universe of the escapees from Troy, in which the dramatic poet multiplies episodes of terror and of murderous crime, the choir’s message introduces a quiet promise of redemption amidst darkness and ceaseless violence. This sombre context reflects the atmosphere, not only of the final days of Priam’s city, but also of the Civil War in France during the reign of the last Valois king. In a dramatic context in which violent horrors mount unabated, the poet’s very language in the central choral ode gives valuable and subtle indications of the action’s ultimate meaning as it deploys itself before the eyes of the astonished spectators in the guise of a spectacle of ever-increasing, inhuman cruelty. Our analysis shows that the “Christian Platonism” often cited by critics of Garnier, following Lebegue, when they explain these verses, is constructed (and limited) by poetic allusion, in the author’s choice of vocabulary. In reality, the clarity of this purportedly philosophical ode is nuanced by a poetic vocabulary that reflects, above all, the author’s continued allegiance to, and dependence upon, the poetic language source forged by the Pleiade generation.