Article
Quos numquam vidimus: un motif cicéronien dans les Regrets de Du Bellay
Réforme Humanisme Renaissance
(2017)
Abstract
The recurrences of poetic formulae in the Regrets often reflect the poet’s familiarity with turns of phrase employed by the Latin orators, even sometimes when the poet uses veritable commonplaces. The present study considers the case of three sonnets (129, 161 and 185) in which DB makes use of a motif that he encountered in Cicero’s De Amicitia, where Laelius explains how it is possible that one may love a person even before having met them. The demonstration shall show that though Du Bellay’s use of this expression is always marked by a concern for social protocol -- for we find the poet making gestures of courtly sociability as he returns to his native land --, the very precision of his linguistic usage reveals the science of poetic aptness which constitutes the foundation of the Regrets’ epistolary fiction.
Keywords
- Du Bellay,
- Humanism,
- Cicero,
- Commonplaces,
- Poetic formulae
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring June 15, 2017
Citation Information
John A Nassichuk. "Quos numquam vidimus: un motif cicéronien dans les Regrets de Du Bellay" Réforme Humanisme Renaissance Vol. 84 (2017) p. 85 - 106 ISSN: 1171-1347 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/johnnassichuk/88/