RONSARD, PIERRE DE, a celebrated French poet and reformer of French poetry, was born at the château de la Polsonuiere, in VendOmois, Sept. 11, 1524. At the age of nine he was sent to the college de Navarre, hut was soon removed, and shortly after entered the service of the dauphin as page. Handsome, well-made, and excelling in all bodily acccm plishments, he soon became a general favorite. When his master died (1536), he became attached to the household of tate duc &Orleans, second son of the king, accompanied James V. of Scotland back to his kingdom, with his new bride, Marie de Lorraine, in 1538; and after a stay of nearly three years at the Scottish, and six months at the English court. he returned to France, and re-entered the service of the duke. A little later, however, on recovering from a serious illness, lie found himself afflicted with a deafness, which led him to resign the pursuits of arms for those of letters. With this view, lie took up his residence in the college de Coqueret and studied hard for five years. He had pre• vionsly acquired a knowledge of Latin and of several European languages. His own language, as a vehicle of literary instruction, was a subject of continual meditation with him. Familiar now with the masterpieces of Greece and Rome, he wished (like a true child of the renaissance, as he was) to invest the national poetry with a elastic dignity and grace. Several of his fellow-students shared his opinions and enthusiasm; and in 1549, one of these, Joachim du Bellay, published what may be called the irst manifesto of the new school, the illustration dela Langue Franfoise. Without denying the necessity or the value of the change thus begun by Ronsard and his friends, we may just remark in passing that the most intelligent French critics now admit that it was too radical, ton absolute; it broke abruptly with the national traditions and tendencies, and more than anything else helped to fix that pseudo-classicism of style which was subsequently brought to disastrous perfection in the splendid aritia of Corneille and Racine. In 1550 Ronsard himself appeared in the field with his Amours and Quatre Litres d' Odes. The volume excited the most violent opposition among the adherents of the older national school, and it cannot be said that their antipathy was altogether unreasonable. Rabelais (q.v.)
was conspicuous among the adversaries of the new school, and made Ronsard the sub ject of some bitter sarcasms. But on the whole, the classic party had the best of it. Its efforts were in harmony with the general intellectual tendencies of the time, and, besides, Ronsard was just the man to make powerful friends. Marguerite. sister of Henry II., granted him a pension; the illustrious chancellor de l'HOpital warmly encour aged him to persevere in his course; and both Henry H. and Francois IT. covered him with honors and pensions. In 1553 it new edition of the Amours was published; in 1555 the first, in 1556 the second, volume of his Hymnes; and finally, in 1560, an edition of his whole works up to this period, in four volumes. The admiration of his contemporaries intoxicated him; and he did not shrink from conferring on himself a sort of anticipatory apotheosis. During the religious wars that devastated France, Ronsard made himself noted by the violence of his attacks on the Calvanists or Huguenots. Twenty days after the massacre of St. Bartholomew he published La Pranpulde, an epic fragment. He meant that it should comprise 24 books, but he only finished 4, having, perhaps, discovered that the subject was not happily chosen, and that epic poetry was a touch above him; yet such was the belief in his genius. that not a few of his contemporaries did not hesitate to prefer it to the .zEneid. Charles IX. could only expresshis delight by conferring on the lucky bard additional favors. He gave Ronsard the abbeys of Croix. 'Val and Bellozane, and the priories of Saint-Cosme, of Evailles, etc. But the disorders" of what his countrymen called his "joyous" youth now began to tell upon l.im, and, afflicted with premature infirmities, he retired to the abbey of Croix-Val, where he spent most of his remaining years in lettered ease, honored with the attentions of the great to the last. Queen Elizabeth of England sent him a set of diamonds, and Mary Stuart, from her prison, a set of plate worth 2,000 crowns, with the inscription: Ronsard,'l 'Apollon de la Source des Aliases.
In 1584 he collected and republished his whole works in one volume, and died on Dec. 27 of the year following.—See Saint-Beuve's (Blares Choieies de P. Ronsard, avec _Notice, .Notes et Commentaires (Paris, 1828).