The Role of Platonic Symbols in the Poetry of Pontus de Tyard

The Role of Platonic Symbols in the Poetry of Pontus de TyardAuthor(s): Eva KushnerReviewed work(s):Source: Yale French Studies, No. 47, Image and Symbol in the Renaissance (1972), pp. 124-144Published by: Yale University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929406 .

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Eva Kushner

The role of Platonic symbols in the poetry of Pontus de Tyard

Much has already been written about the Platonic and Neoplatonic sources of the works of Pontus de Tyard. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the knowledge of the nature of his Platonism, and consequently of his world view, not merely by tracing sources and influences but mainly by showing the place of certain Platonic symbols within the structure of his poetry. The result of this analysis will tend to show that even if "writing in a Platonistic vein was a fashionable exercise more frequently than the mark of a vocation," 1 Platonism is at the very root of the thought of Pontus de Tyard between 1549 and 1555. His Platonic symbols are situated at a deeper level of expression than the Petrarchan imagery he uses, so that they structure the poems in which they appear. By their interrelationships in a coherent world view, they also give poetic unity to the three books of Erreurs amoureuses, as well as to his two earliest dialogues.

This approach may contribute to solving the problem to which Robert V. Merrill has drawn attention, namely, that Tyard does not seem equally committed in all his poems to a world view inspired by Plato. In regard to the World Soul doctrine, for example, Tyard appears to offer only "scattered reminiscences"; 2 nor does he draw the parallels one would expect "between the structure of the universe and that of his own being". 3 Therefore, Merrill concludes that Tyard cares less about cosmological Platonism than he does about other aspects. Merrill's view rests on a method and assumption which are widespread among historians of the Pleiade school of poetry. His method consists of bringing out the principal patterns of Platonic

1 Robert V. Merrill with Robert J. Clements, Platonism in French Re- naissance Poetry (New York, 1957), p. 32.

2 Ibid., p. 17. 3 Ibid., p. 17.

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concepts in Pleiade poetry, and in classifying the poets as to the faithfulness of their loyalty to these concepts. His assumption appears to be that "cosmological Platonism" has to be explicitly present.

When discussing Pontus de Tyard (or any of the Pleiade poets), it would be beneficial to take into account variations over the years in regard to Platonism. In the case of Ronsard, this might point to a strong Platonic impulse in 1552-53; yet later, some of his thoughts are somewhat opposed to Plato. The case of Tyard, however, is very different. The entire six-year period during which he wrote the three books of Erreurs amoureuses can be regarded as a period of intense and rather exclusive attachment to Plato. The two Solitaires, also written during this period, bear this out with the solid weight of doctrine. This means, among other things, that the assumption concerning the relative absence of cosmological Platonism has to be questioned, perhaps in the following terms, borrowed from Merrill himself: 4 "is Pontus de Tyard a Platonist, or is he a Platonizer on the sole subject of love?" While this question cannot be answered thoroughly in the space of an article, one essential aspect can be treated: is Pontus de Tyard's Platonic imagery merely a surface phenomenon (at what might be called the metaphorical level) pro- viding specific poems of his canzoniere with idealistic comparisons with which to praise Pasithee? In that case, they would provide the complement and counterpart of the Petrarchan imagery which is also woven into his songs. Or are they, at a deeper level, part of a network of symbols pertaining to Plato's world view and interconnected with Tyard's own? I would suggest the latter to be the case, on the basis of analyses of Platonic symbols within the structure of the poems where they occur.

Tyard had multiple opportunities to read the works of Plato; and apart from the Platonist fashion of the day, he had personal reasons to pattern himself after the famous philosopher-poet - but this is a matter of historical record. Circumstances favorable to the growth of a Platonic thinker surrounded him in Lyon, center of his intellectual friendships. Between 1530 and 1540, many Latin translations and

4 Ibid., p. 32.

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commentaries on Plato were published. Among these were: Proclus' commentary on the Timaeus (edited several times after 1530); texts of the Timaeus in Latin (1530) and Greek (1532); Angelo Poliziano's translation of the Charmides (1533); a complete edition of Ficino's translation; Ficino's translation of the Phaedo (1536); a Latin translation of the Laws (1538); a Greek edition of the Apology (1539); and fragments of the Timaeus in 1540.

But it was after 1540 that translations of Plato into French become even more frequent (often under the sponsorship of Mar- guerite de Navarre). Bonaventure des Periers translated the Lysis, and the printing of it was supervised by Antoine du Moulin, a close friend of Pontus de Tyard's. The propagation of Platonism then proceeded, according to Lefranc, in two main streams: one more philosophical with Dolet, Ramus, and Le Roy; the other more literary with Sainte-Marthe and Heroet. We shall be able to ascertain that Pontus de Tyard reunites these two currents in his work.

In the Solitaire Premier, the perfect integration of form and doctrine is found: the dialogue is a well structured example of the Pla- tonic approach to love, knowledge and poetry which is its subject. But this integration of thought and form is seen to manifest itself also in the Erreurs amoureuses-if our analysis goes beyond the superficial and sometimes misleading distinction between philosophical doctrine and poetic fancy. In the case of Tyard, the separation into philosopher and poet was, of course, implanted by Scevole de Sainte- Marthe who saw three clearly defined stages in his life, and to whose conventionally religious mind the passage from poetry to philosophy and from philosophy to theology embodied a spiritual progression:

Pontus de Tyard suivit dans ses etudes l'ordre que la nature meme semble prescrire... Des sa plus tendre jeunesse il appliqua son esprit aux charmantes douceurs de la poesie... Quand il eut atteint la'ge d'homme, il s'adonna serieusement aux mathematiques et a toutes les autres parties de la philosophic; et sur sa viejilesse, ayant courageusement renonce a toutes ces etudes, it s'appliqua tout a fait 'a la contemplation des choses celestes et a la meditation continuelle des sacres mysteres de notre religion.5

5 Quoted by Jeandet, Etude sur le seizieme si'cle. France et Bourgogne. Pontus de Tyard, p. 79.

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What Scevole de Sainte-Marthe appears to be ignoring here is the continuity, in fact the unity, of Tyard's thought during the years 1549-55. For the two philosophical discourses published in 1552 -Le Solitaire Premier, devoted to the nature of poetry, and Le Solitaire Second, devoted to the nature and theory of music-

have direct lines of correspondence with those Platonic concepts in Tyard's poetry which it is our purpose to uncover and isolate by means of symbols.

As to Pontus de Tyard himself, it is quite clear that the pursuit of poetry and philosophy tend, in his view of the 1549-55 period, towards the same lofty end: the ascent of the soul towards the Good. The aim of poetry is to "eslever depuis ce corps jusques aux Cieux l'ame qui des Cieux est descendue dedans ce corps." 6 This is a philosophical, and of course a Platonic view of poetry. It is after the year 1555, starting with the Discours du Temps, that the Platonic point of view - and not merely poetry itself -will be gradually abandoned in favor of a more inductive approach to philosophy; Tyard himself appears to be hinting at this change in attitude when he says in Mantice:

J'ai cru jusqu'a cette heure que de la profonde somme de philosophie en laquelle a l'imitation des Anciens nous nettoyons et polissons nos en- tendements et qui met en besogne notre partie raisonnable, en discourant par dispute et divers arguments, nous puisons la connaissance certaine de la nature des choses qui nous fait nous elever jusques 'a 'admiration de la divinite en contemplation de laquelle nos mceurs sont meilleurs au choix des vertus et des vices. 7

From this point on, however, he requires that all disciplines look to philosophy as an example of the utilization of man's rational powers; and this may imply the change, shown by Kathleen Hall, from a more contemplative and ethically-oriented to a more scientific exercise of reason. But this was after what Kathleen Hall has called the crisis of 1556; and it contributes to showing by contrast and

6 Pontus de Tyard, Le Solitaire Premier, edition critique par Silvio F. Baridon (Geneva, 1950), p. 10.

7 Pontus de Tyard, Mantice. In Discours philosophiques (Paris, 1587), p. 137.

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in retrospect the unity of Tyard's Platonic world view until 1555. Thus, there are many reasons why during the period under consid- eration, from the point of view of biography as well as of intellectual history, Tyard could, with some autonomy in regard to other poets and writers of his time (and specifically the other members of the Pleiade), cling to a world vision of his own, steeped in his personal grasp of Platonism. Nor does the extent of his borrowings from Ficino and Leo Hebraeus, among others, in the Solitaire Premier, preclude that Tyard senses and grasps, on his own, the Platonic symbols which are always richer, and more polyvalent, than any philosophical doctrine built upon them.

For example, there is no doubt that the image of the sun could constitute a Petrarchan conceit expressing the light and warmth and perfection radiating from Pasithee. One could go further and say that Tyard reaches for the image of the sun whenever he needs to suggest all that is beautiful, good, and true in Pasithee: earthly embodiment of beauty, goodness and truth. It is even possible that Tyard merely reaches for a figure of speech and finds a symbol which thereafter continues to work in the poem - and in the mind of the reader - relating to all its other elements until the very nature of love is touched upon. This is suggested in sonnet VIII of the Pre- mier livre where the first glimpse of the lady's countenance and more particularly her compassionate smile call forth a comparison with the sun; in fact, the verb "cuiday" suggests that the poet was consciously seeking a term of comparison, and that nothing short of Plato's chief symbol would be worthy in his eyes of describing Pa- sithee's smile: "Lors que je veis un souriz, colorer / Et de douceur, et de pitie sa face, / Qui en leur beau toutes beautez efface, / Je la cuyday au Soleil comparer." 8 The question now arises whether the Platonic symbol is being brought down to the level of a timid lover's metaphor, or whether, on the contrary, the choice of the image will permeate the poem and add to the dimension of enco- mium - that of a search for the eternity of love. The next two lines

8 Pontus de Tyard, cEuvres poetiques completes, edition critique par John C. Lapp (Paris, 1966), p. 14.

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remain at the level of a rather clumsy metaphorical expression, tracing a parallel between the consuming heat of the sun and the consuming love which devours the poet. This is, however, tran- scended in the last four lines of the poem; first, by the boldness with which Tyard compares the universal presence of the sun to the no less universal renown of the lady. If this were the end, we would simply raise an eyebrow at the extent of the "grossissement"; but lines 13 and 14 forcefully confirm that what is at stake is indeed the quest for the eternity of truth and love. Eternity becomes the attribute of the lady's soul and presence, in contrast with the sun, which is taken in its physical sense, as part of the world of nature, and with nature bound for eventual destruction: "Mais, eclipsant, sa clart6 cessera, / Jamais le nom d'elle n'eclipsera." 9 This means in effect that the sun as an image is in the end found imperfect, but for reasons bound up with the sun as symbol. At that point, the soul of Pasithee can be divorced from its term comparison in the visible word -the sun -just as in Platonic thought the sun is taken as symbolic representation of the idea of good, without the symbolization sanctioning the material world through one of its heavenly bodies. In the analogy, to Plato explains that the sun is to human sight in the world of the visible what the idea of the good is to man's soul in the invisible, spiritual world - the source of all knowledge: "And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being shine, the soul perceives sand understands and is radiant with intelligence; but when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then she has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and is first of one opinion and then of another, and seems to have no intelligence?" "-

To understand the role of the sun in this famous analogy, it must be linked with the analogy of the divided line; 12 both analogies in conjunction with each other initiate us into the nature of Plato's

9 Ibid., p. 14. 10 Republic IV/508. 11 The Dialogues of Plato, translated into English by B. Jowett (New

York, 1937), vol. I, p. 770. 12 Republic VI/510.

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symbolic thought. The visible world is, of course, along the divided line, linked with becoming and with mere knowledge through the senses, by opinion alone without certainty. In this respect the sun as a physical phenomenon is bound up with the visible world, and thus the very symbol of visibility as well as the source of light in that world. It is this exalted role which designates the sun as the sign that gives both knowledge and being in the world of the invisible. Plato lifts up the former, by the power of poetry, to open our eyes to the latter. Far from being merely a pedagogical device, this mode of thought may at times become a mode of dis- covery of the unknown when logic fails:

Ce Grec epris de beaute a un si profond sentiment de la nature qu'il voit les abstractions, et leur donne spontanement une forme plastique. On sait qu'il tenait le monde sensible pour une copie du monde intelligible. Mais cette parente des deux mondes, il ne se borne pas a la concevoir avec sa raison: il l'imagine, la saisit comme une realite, si bien que le materiel est a la lettre le symbole du spirituel. D'o' cette correspondance constante entre l'&me et le corps, entre les idees et la nature... 13

The Renaissance poet, (if he is indeed steeped in Platonic thought and not merely in the metaphorical devices of the canzo- nieri) would relate this method of symbolization to the idea of love. When Tyard says that Pasithee is more enduring than the sun itself, because the sun may suffer an eclipse, but her renown will never fail, he may, of course, once more be engaging in over- praise. But as soon as the eternity of a woman's virtue (and her virtue is the inner basis of her renown) is mentioned, we know that underneath the compliment lies a firm belief in virtue as the mark of eternity upon the lover's soul. Pasithee's beauty stems from this inner harmony which in turn stems, in Ficinian terms, from the goodness of God. That this is the real sun of the invisible world, radiating upon the human lover, can easily be inferred from the following passage of La Parfaycte Amye by Herodt, published seven years before Tyard's Erreurs amoureuses:

13 Perceval Frutiger, Les mythes de Platon, etude philosophique et lit- teraire (Paris, 1930), p. 276.

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II me souvient luy avoir ouy dire Que la beaulte que nous voyons reluyre Es corps humains n'estoit qu'une estincelle De ceste la qu'il nommoit immortelle; Que ceste cy, bien qu'elle fust sortie De la celeste et d'elle une partie, Si toustefois entre nous perissoit, Si s'augmentoit, ou s'elle decroissoit, Que l'aultre estoit entiere et immobile. 14

It would be quite inexact to assert that the sun, in every poem of Erreurs amoureuses, is thus a symbolical point of encounter for all on earth that aspires towards the good. A poem like "Sextine," 15

although it is strictly organized around the image of the sun, remains thoroughly un-Platonic in its use of this image. This is due to the fact that the sun appears in this poem at a metaphorical rather than a symbolical level, and is linked to the Petrarchan system of expression rather than to a Platonic view of love. 16 Far from being mutually exclusive, the two levels coexist in many poems; the Platonic symbolism underlies the Petrarchan phraseology and subtle links arise among those privileged poems, which form the Platonic substratum of the whole of the Erreurs amoureuses. It is quite possible to establish a classification of all the poems in the three books according to what might be called their "teneur en plato- nisme." 17 Such a classification must, perforce, include an intermediate category, the poems of which are neither strongly Petrar- chan nor strongly Platonic, but combine the two strains in their structure. In the first book of the Erreurs at least, it might be said that the torment of the Petrarchan lover serves as introduction, or "propedeutique," to the contemplative attitude of the Platonic lover. It can also be observed that the first book contains the largest number of the more exclusively Petrarchan poems. Here our content

14 Antoine HeroEt, La parfaycte Amye, in (Euvres poe'tiques, edition critique par Ferdinand Gohin (Paris, 1943), 875-884, p. 42.

15 Pontus de Tyard, (Euvres poetiques completes, p. 37-38. 16 For a more detailed discussion see "Le systeme symbolique dans la

po6tique de Pontus de Tyard," in Actes du XllIe congres international d'e'tudes humanistes: l'expression symbolique a la Renaissance (in press).

17 This was done in preparation for the paper mentioned in note 16.

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analysis only underscores John Lapp's previous findings, 18 concerning the evolution which occurs between the first and the second book. The influence of Sceve has diminished. In his relation to the beloved, Tyard abandons the doleful sighs reminiscent of Pe- trarch, Serafino, and Tebaldeo. The relationship of lover and beloved becomes more equitable, because the poet too can bring something which is unique: the gift of poetry in the service of the appreciation of beauty. Furthermore, in the second and third book, we find the "intermediate" type of poem more frequent, as the characteristically Petrarchan poem becomes less frequent; and the "intermediate" poem, quite often, leans towards Platonism in its imagery without being exclusively Platonic. It might be said that in the development of his poetry, Tyard gradually finds a synthesis of his own, and that in depth, this synthesis is nourished by Platonic symbols.

Let us for a moment return to "Sextine" which is an example of the predominantly Petrarchan type of poem. Here, the image of the sun merely stands for the eye of the lady with its inflammatory effect upon the lover's emotions:

Mais, comme on voit les rayons du Soleil Eschauffer tout gT-bas, ainsi ton ceil Rouant sur moy de plus en plus m'enflame.19

The sun, in this meteorological function, also dries the downpour of tears naturally and brings an end to all tempests. Furthermore, it provides an antithesis for the darkness of torment. It is no wonder that the poet wishes for the weather of love to remain favorable to him:

Plustost ne soit resoult en Elemens Ce corps, ny l'ame au Ciel sur le Soleil Puisse saillir, que doux ne me soit N'ceil, Le quel m'enflame, et me tient en tourmens.20

18 Pontus de Tyard, cEuvres poetiques completes, pp. xxxii-xxxiii. 19 Pontus de Tyard, UEuvres poetiques completes, p. 38. 20 Ibid., p. 39.

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Sonnet LII of the Premier Livre is also quite typical of those which use the image of the sun in a Petrarchan spirit and at a metaphorical level. It represents the other extreme of the capricious weather which dominates the life of the obedient lover; if the sun of the lady's favour shines upon him, he is ecstatic:

0 Jour heureux esclairci clerement, De mon soleil! o Soleil gracieux, Saint, et luisant plus que celuy des cieux! Digne de luire en tout le firmament.21

The difference between the use of the sun in the last two poems, and that which we saw exemplified in I/VIII, is that here the relation between the lover and the beloved remains at a purely psychological level - one of utter dependence of the lover upon the beloved - and that the use of the image is metaphorical, without any real reference to any other level of reality. In the Pla- tonic and symbolical sense, the relationship between lover and beloved is one of harmony (or disharmony) as can be seen in the poem "Disgrace." 22 At any rate, their relationship, while it occurs at the personal level of reality, has echoes and corresponding overtones at other levels of reality: on the one hand, the individual souls of lover and beloved, and on the other hand, the cosmos at large.

Tyard is conscious of the superficiality and deceptiveness of what today we call the pathetic fallacy; it is obvious from sonnet I/XXXVII, where he expresses doubt about the sympathy of nature for the plight of the unrewarded lover:

De quoy me sert, quand la douleur me presse, Blasmer ainsi mon destin, et les Dieux: Dire tout Astre, et la Terre, et les Cieux Estre inclinez a ma grieve tristesse? 23

The cosmos does not deviate from its set course to console a human heart; and the only sun whose smile or frown can change the

21 Ibid., p. 60. 22 Ibid., p. 19. 23 Ibid., p. 49.

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destiny of the poet is that which shines in his lady's eyes. This simply means that Tyard is conscious of the purely metaphorical function of the image of the sun, in those cases where the reader can identify it as being metaphorical; in other words, that he himself consciously distinguishes between the sun as a figure of speech and the sun as source and symbol of good among all that is - including human love.

A most fruitful comparison between the metaphorical and Pe- trarchan use of the image of the sun and its symbolical and Platonic use within a wider view, arises from the study of sonnet I/XXXV, in which Tyard imitates Petrarch, at least initially. Petrarch's sonnet XXXIX blesses, after pinpointing it, the juncture of the stars, which made possible the lovers' meeting, and the whole arsenal of instruments of torture that love uses to make its presence felt. The entire sonnet is an act of thanksgiving for love, whatever suffering it may bring, for the one and glorius reason that such a perfect being as the beloved exists, and that the poet is permitted to view her:

Benedetto sia'l giorno, e'l mese, e l'anno E la stagione, e'l tempo, e l'hora, e'l punto, E'l bel paese, e'l loco, ov'io fui giunto Da duo belli occhi, che legato m'hanno. E benedetto il primo dolce affanno Ch'i hebbi ad esser con amor congiunto; E l'arco, e le saette, ond'fui punto; E le piaghe, ch'infin al cor mi vanno. Benedette le voci tante, ch'io Chiamando il nome di mia donna ho sparte; E i sospiri, e le lagrime, e'l desio: E benedette sian tutte le charte, Ov'io fama l'acquisto: e'l pensier mio Ch'e sol di lei, si, ch'altra don v'ha parte. 24

The image of the sun in the last line seems to suggest that light and warmth emanate from the lady; and the thought of her is indeed the only source of warmth and light. It is obvious that the entire poem is structured around the theme of the fortunate meeting of

24 Petrarch, Rime, ed. Leopardi, Edoardo Sonzogno, editore (Milano, 1893), p. 77.

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the two lovers, for which the lover -in typical Petrarchan fashion -is eternally indebted to the exact workings of fate: this attitude betrays the customary bondage of the poet to the lady. The whole poem is a sigh, marvellously constructed upon a dosage of happiness and suffering.

Can Pontus de Tyard, in I/XXXV, be said to have "imitated" this sonnet of Petrarch's? We must analyze the degree of freedom he took with his model, and see whether this freedom brings him closer to a Platonic grasp of the sun symbol.

Heureux le mois, heureuse la journee, Heureuse 1'heure, et heureux le moment, Heureux le siecle, heureux le Firmament, Souz qui ma Dame heureusement fut nee.

Heureuse soit 1'heureuse destinde De I'Astre heureux, qui feit heureusement Ce jour heureux son heureux mouvement, Sur toute estoille en bon aspect tournee.

Heureux ce monde auquel elle sejourne, Et le Soleil, qui autour d'elle tourne, En s'eclipsant a l'objet de sa veue.

Moy mal'heureux en mon affection, Qui n'esjouis ma triste passion, La connoissant de si grand heur pourveue.25

The first two lines are the same in both sonnets: blessed are the circumstances of the encounter blessed is even the suffering of love since there is no love without suffering. But even at the episodic level Petrarch insists more on the "love at first sight" motif and its accompanying images than does Tyard. At the metaphorical level, Petrarch's poem is built upon the turmoil of the lover's soul since the lover is totally dependent upon the will of a haughty and independent lady. What sets the mood of Tyard's poem is the repetition of the adjective "heureux" and of the adverb "heureusement," which are the leitmotiv not only of the lines describing the exact point in time and space of the lovers' meeting, but also of the harmonious relationship the lover senses between the beauty

25 Pontus de Tyard, (Euvres poetiques completes, p. 48.

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of the lady and the harmony of the universe. This could, of course, be viewed as a hyperbole in praise, but even so the emphasis has changed from the state of upheaval of the Petrarchan lover to the sense of wonder the Platonic poet finds in a world which encompas- ses the lady, as symbolized by the sun's turning around her. There is, in fact, no inconsistency between the hyperbolic expression and the sense of wonder which catches hold of the poet as he grasps the centrality of beauty in the universe. The hyperbolic expression (in which once again the sun as a material object is eclipsed by the spiritual beauty of the lady) leads, in fact, to the metaphorical interplay of the sun, the lady, and the cosmos. That the poet is unable, in the last three lines, to draw solace from this vision of a happily ordered world does not detract from the fact that there is a world order. In this manner, the metaphorical level, with its sun which smiles with anthropomorphic favour upon human beauty, leads us to the deeper level where all symbols interconnect and where beauty is merely the incentive of love not its objects, just as the material sun only elevates the spirit towards the source of all good.

The question of whether Pontus de Tyard himself was conscious of these various levels of poetic expression among his poems, or as in the case just analyzed, only within a single poem. In this regard, sonnet XXXVII of the Premier livre226 appears almost as an antidote to sonnet XXXV which we just contrasted with its Petrarchan model, showing its inner Platonic tendency. Here Tyard mocks his own, man-centered view of nature and confesses that to involve the cosmos and its elements in the description and ex- planation of one's misfortunes is to deceive oneself; nature is un- sympathetic. "What is the use," he asks, "of blaming fate, and to do so by pretending that the earth and all the heavenly bodies partake in man's plight. The power which is in heaven," Tyard continues, "does not descend on earth just to bring sorrow to a human being; sorrow can be brought only by one human being upon another, and the two suns which burnt the poet's soul are but his lady's eyes." On the surface it might appear that the image of the sun is used

26 See note 24.

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here in a metaphorical and Petrarchan sense, all the more since the plural required by two eyes takes away from the loftiness of the sun symbol in its ultimate Platonic sense. But are we to think that Tyard is suddenly denying harmony, individual and universal? Not unless the existence of such harmony is to be confused with the naive anthropomorphism of the first stanza. The fact that, following the usual canzoniere situation, one human being brings suffering and subjection upon another does not mean the end or the nonexistence of universal harmony. It would appear, on the contrary, that Tyard asserts the stability and orderliness of the cosmos by saying that it does not yield to human impulses. Anthropomorphism as a poetic attitude does not deny universal harmony; nor can it, however, bring it about or destroy it. In this sonnet Tyard appears particularly aware of the double fact of harmony in the universe, and disharmony in the life of the distressed lover. Thus the Petrarchan love situation serves to express in a negative manner, and draw attention to, the ideal situation in which there would be no need for heaven to change its appointed course to participate in man's sorrow, because by the joy found in love, man would be attuned to heaven.

We find, then, that the metaphorical and Petrarchan level not only coexists with the Platonic and symbolic level in the structure of the poem, but that the former has constant reference to the latter. In certain poems, as we have stated, the Petrarchan situation and phraseology predominate; in others, they lead in a more or less obvious way to the deeper, symbolical level. It is easy to find in the Erreurs amoureuses poems in support of Merrill's consistent view of Pontus de Tyard as a "Platonizer"rather than a "Platonist": that is, a poet whose imagery tends to be subjected to the needs of the conventional canzoniere situation, so that even where an image is of Platonic origin, it has lost or appears to have lost its philosophical roots and overtones; it has been reduced, through a series of Neo- Platonic transmissions, to a figure of speech in the service of the Petrarchan love situation.

Having found this to be true in the case of the sun, let us now turn to other images in order to test whether Merrill's assertions did

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not address themselves to a surface phenomenon rather than to the total structure of Tyard's poetic thought. "Tyard is so thoroughly Petrarchized, says Merrill, that the innumerable references in his verse to torches, flames and burning must be on the whole prudently excluded from the Platonistic canon." 27 However, this statement is made following a quotation from a poem of the Livre de vers Uri- ques, "Ode 1111. de ses affections," which represents, at least in the introductory stanzas, a notable exception to this general- ization. The image of the steeds and that of the torches has, according to Merrill, a Ficinian origin:

Au plus haut de 1'humain chef Sied l'Ame de la raison, Tentant voller derechef En 1'eternelle maison, D'oth jadis le Cheval noir, (Cheval rebour) le feit choir, Malgre l'autre aux blanches aesles. Renouvellant donc son cours S'empenne par ses discours De maintes plumes nouvelles.

Elle apporte, en trebuchant, Deux brandons pernicieux, Qu'elle allume en approchant Le cinquiesme, et tiers des cieux.. .28

These two torches are Mars and Venus, and man can see them in the sky as a "couple adultere," an ill-assorted pair of planets representing the equally ill-assorted emotions of love and hate that struggle for domination within man's soul. In regard to the first stanza and to the image of the steeds, it can be of course admitted that Ficino inspires it and that the dichotomy is more than a psychological one, representing the admixture of the celestial and the terrestrial in man. But even assuming this Ficinian transmission, is a more direct contact with Plato himself excluded or cannot two meanings, once again, be said to coexist in the poem? In order to answer this question

27 Robert V. Merrill, op. cit., p. 96. 28 Pontus de Tyard, cEuvres poe'tiques completes, p. 175.

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adequately it is necessary to situate the symbol of the winged horses within the Phaedrus. It will be remembered that the first part of the dialogue makes a distinction between lovers and nonlovers, and that both Lysias and Socrates, speaking from a rather pragmatically ethical and social point of view, conclude that the nonlover is superior to the lover because of the former's disinterestedness, and his ability to let his friend grow and be himself, without attempting to possess him. This part of the dialogue is specifically related to a society in which homosexuality was widely accepted; it had, therefore, to be reinterpreted for the Renaissance reader. Whether to reader of the Renaissance or Antiquity, it does, however, convey the message, or at least open the subject, of the dual nature of man. It provides Socrates, furthermore, with a springboard for his second discourse, that in which love is no longer conceived as merely desire but as one of the forms of frenzy which can raise man above himself; par- adoxically, the lover (in the truly inspired sense) becomes superior to the nonlover in his relationship with the beloved. But the nature of love has then to be redefined, from a simplistic dichotomy between spirit and flesh in the direction of a difficult striving for inner harmony, with another human being (no longer considered as an object, but as an equal) within the context of universal harmony.

This Socrates describes the soul:

. .. Let her figure be composite-a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteer of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent, but those of other races are mixed; the human charioteer drives his in a pair; and one of them is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; and the driving of them of necessity gives a great deal of trouble to him... The soul in her totality has the care of inanimate being everywhere, and traverses the whole heaven in diverse forms appearing; when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and orders the whole world; whereas the imperfect soul, losing her wings and drooping in her flight at last settles on the solid ground-there, finding a home, she receives an earthly frame which appears to be self-moved, but is really moved by her power; and this composition of soul and body is called a living and mortal creature.29

29 Phaedrus, 251, Jowett translation vol. I, pp. 250-51.

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There is no doubt, then, that in the mind of Plato the coexistence of the light horse and the dark horse in the soul, though both principles also inhabit diviner beings than man, only creates problems for man, to the extent of becoming the chief problem of his ethical life. In conducting his "self-moving," "unbegotten," "immortal" soul, man finds it difficult to dominate the steed of a less noble race. The whole discussion is set, in this part of the dialogue, in a much wider setting than in the first, or for that matter in many of the endless discussions on love so characteristic of the Renaissance. He whose "chariot," like that of the gods, soars upward smoothly because the unruly steed has been triumphantly brought into pace with the noble steed, can share with the gods the banquet of "beholding reality" at that level of universal life (including humans) where there abides "the very being with which true knowledge is concerned; the colour- less, formless, intangible essence, visible only to the mind, the pilot of the soul." 30 The problem of quality of life is viewed as part of that of universal truth; the truth as Plato sees it in other discourses about the nature of the universe, and the knowledge of such truth by contemplation.

But to return to love: the Phaedrus proclaims its divine nature to the extent that it is lived as the contemplation of beauty, which Socrates sees "shining in company with the celestial forms." 31 Ficino, on the other hand, subdivides the nature of beauty, and consequently also that of love, so as to give a far more dualistic interpretation of the relationship of the two "steeds". Love is the creative force which transmits to the Universe the perfection of God.

Quemquamodum vero in deum mens illa statim nata et informis amore convertitur et formatur, sic et mundi anima in mentem deumque illinc genita se reflectit, et cum primo informis sit et chaos, amore in mentem directa, acceptis ab ea formis fit mundus. Non aliter et mundi huius materia, cum principio sine formarum ornamenta informe chaos iaceret, illico amore sibi ingenito in animam se direxit seque illi obedientem prebuit, atque hoc amore conciliante, ab anima formarum omnium que in mundo videntur, nacta ornamentum mundus ex chaos effecta est. 32

30 Ibid., p. 252. 31 Ibid., p. 254. 32 Commentarium in convivium Platonis, Oratio prima, caput III, ed.

Raymond Marcel, Commentaire sur le Banquet de Platon (Paris, 1956), p. 141.

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It can be observed here in passing how Ficino bends the Platonic conception of the origin of the world towards a more Christian idea of creation: the chaos, by love, aspires to receive its form and its being from God. But God, being eternal, pre-existed this "mens" which received from him not only its substance but also its aspiration to be made into a world. But when it comes to the role of love in the life of human beings, Ficino restricts it to the contemplation of beauty (whose essence in turn emanates from God); love is the desire for beauty: "Pulchritudo autem gratia quedam est, que ut plurimum in concinnitate plurium maxime nascitur." 33 But Ficino makes it very clear that the enjoyment of this beauty belongs only to the mind, and among the senses, to sight and hearing. To other forms of desire he attaches the derogatory names of "libido" and "rabies." Thus, the dualism which undoubtedly exists in Plato's metaphysics receives from Ficino ethical corollaries in which the dark steed is indeed identified with physical desires.

But in the ode where Pontus de Tyard shows the soul of man disputed between the light and the dark steed, the emphasis is not on the ravages wrought in the lover's soul by the dark steed. In fact, the ode begins with a poetic descripiton of man's soul in general; while it is reminiscent of Convito II, VIII, 46, where Ficino once again identifies the dark steed with sensual desire, it goes far beyond the individual lover's personal struggles, towards their universal meaning in man's endeavour to regain his spiritual wholeness. Tyard has reunited, in this image of the upward impetus of the chariot with its two steeds, the Platonic doctrine of reminiscence and the Christian doctrine of the Fall tempered by the hope of salvation.

Furthermore, the dark steed in Tyard's vision does not represent only the sensual side of love; it also symbolizes the emotion of hate, the sting of ambition, and the desire of riches; indeed, all that un- balances the soul by firing it with false hopes of happiness. This description of the soul, its hopes, and its vicissitudes does indeed lead to the situation of the Petrarchan lover; but not in the manner suggested by Merrill, in whose eyes the stanzas concerning the soul

33 Ibid., p. 142.

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appear to be a mere hors d'oeuvre to yet another poem on the lover's plight. Yet there is, at the symbolic level, a relationship between the beginning of the poem and that which follows: the poet's application to himself, and to his entire life, that which he has learned from Plato about the soul; and this leads, not only to the choice of love as the centre of his life, but also to that of poetry. The Petrarchan lover's situation has indeed been part of the poet's condition, and he has accepted it and expressed with the images sanctioned by Petrarch and the Quattrocentists:

Depuys j'ay tousjours chante La rare perfection D'une Angelique beaute: J'ay chantd ma passion Inconstante constamment En glace, en feu, en tourment Qui 1'esprit me mine et me ronge . . . 34

But he goes on to identify this attitude and this style of writing with self-deception; he also discovers that the power of poetry compensates for the lady's power over him; and finally, it can be said that in the wide autobiographical context of this poem the introductory stanzas devoted to the steeds and the torches are not incidental touches of Platonism, but they are, on the contrary, organically linked with its overall purpose: the analysis of love and poetry in Tyard's own life.

No poem of Tyard's is perhaps as coherent an expression of the discord, disharmony, and imperfection which may seize the life of human beings as the poem "Disgrace" 35 with its network of Platonic symbols tightly organized among themselves to show, through disorder, a need and aspiration for order. At the episodic level, a disagreement between the poet and Pasithee suffices to explain the poet's search for images of disorder. But the symbolic tissue of the poem succeeds in holding and recalling every level of reality with which Tyard is concerned, showing what harmony there could exist

34 Pontus de Tyard, cEuvres poe'tiques completes, p. 178. 35 Ibid., pp. 19-20.

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within the soul itself, between the souls of lover and beloved, as well as in the universe as a whole. Thus we have far more in this poem than a Quattrocentist "disperata": rather, starting from the lovers' quarrel, we see arising, with its manifestations and conse- quences rigorously portrayed, the threat of disharmony. In this manner, "Disgrace" becomes, through its use of symbols, closely linked with the ode which has just been examined; the "Chimere" substi- tuted to the idea, the solid whole which becomes a mirage, the light turning to darkness, the music of the spheres changed to a grinding noise: all these represent, in the interplay of symbols, a world in which the "dark steed" would dominate at all levels.

Kathleen Hall has shown how precise and orderly Tyard's picture of disorder is: it simply reverses the picture of world order ac- ceptable to an intelligent man of Tyard's generation. 36 Aristote- lianism and Platonism take their place within this vision, because, Greek thought for him only foreshadows the revelation (though poetically it tends, at times, to replace it!) Biblical cosmology welds together the entire vision. The order followed by the terze rime of "Disgrace," as Kathleen Hall has demonstrated, is the same as many scientific textbooks of the Renaissance: it proceeds from the origin of the world and its spheres, to God and his relationship with man. Christianity and Platonism merge in the thought of Tyard in a pessimistic vision of the world of matter (including man as a material being) abandoned to itself. Each stanza contributes a suggestion of doom symbolically parallel to that suggested by the adjacent stanzas: whether it is cosmic reversal due to "trepidation"; or the destruction of the music of the spheres, painful to the poet's inner hearing; or the "obliqueness" of the rays of the sun, which cannot stray from its accustomed path but shows its disfavour by no longer imparting its light directly - all point to the essential which is the soul of the poet's soul, whose presence brings harmony, and whose absence brings disharmony.

36 Kathleen Hall, "Pontus de Tyard and his 'Disgrace' ", L'Esprit createur, vol. V, Summer 1965, pp. 102-110.

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All this tends to show that, beneath a veneer of commonly used figures of speech often associated in the eyes of literary historians with the name of Petrarch, the structure of Tyard's poetry has an inner direction in which Tyard rejoins Plato in contemplating the ultimate end of life. The symbol of the prison might serve as a final and' perhaps conclusive example. The tradition of medieval lyrical poetry, as well as the Quattrocentist tradition, speaks of the prison of love to describe the poet's exclusive loyalty to his lady. Pontus de Tyard is not exempt from this use, as for example in III/VII:

Quel joug, quel 'faiz, quelles forces estranges, Rendroient ailleurs ma servitude esclave? Ne crains point, non qu'autre prison m'enclave . . . 37

Yet his preference goes to the deeper Platonic meaning or the prison symbol, which Socrates speaks of when he says in the Phae- drus that "we are imprisoned in the body like an oyster in his shell," 38 or again that which is described in the Republic in the allegory of the cave, and from which at times, a privileged human being escapes to be led towards the sun and towards knowledge. Certain cries of Tyard suggest that the love prison is but the first step in the exploration of the prison of life: "Mon esprit, las d'estre en prison mortelle, / Cherche au Enfers, en Terre et Ciel, secours." 3 For Plato, and for Tyard as well, this may be the common jus- tification of poetry and love.

37 Pontuts de Tyard, cEuvres poetiques completes, p. 133. 38 Phaedrus, 250, Jowett translation vol. I, p. 254. 39 Pontus de Tyard, cEuvres poe'tiques compltes, p. 71.

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