RONSARD, Pierre de, pe-ir de ron-sir, French poet: b. Chateau de la Poissonniere, Vendomois, 11 Sept. 1524; d. Saint Cosme near Tours, 27 Dec. 1585. He entered as page the service of the dauphin, and then of the Duc d'Orlians, second son of the king. In 1538 he accompanied James V of Scotland and his bride Marie de Lorraine back to their kingdom and remained at the Scottish court three years. He also spent six months at the English court and was then employed in a diplomatic capacity in Germany, Piedmont, Flanders and Scotland. On his return to France he devoted himself with great eagerness to the study of literature. With a group of followers, self-styled the Vleiade,* he cast away the literary traditions and ideals of medieval France and sought inspiration from the Latin and Greek classics. The result was transformatory, and Ronsard's influence on the progress .of French letters was thus very great. In the Floral Games at Toulouse he triumphed over his competitors and received a silver statue of Minerva which he presented to Henry II.
He was greatly esteemed by that prince and by his successors, Francis H and Charles IX; ob tained the abbey of Bellozane and was also prior of Saint Cosme. His writings, consisting of sonnets, madrigals, eclogues, lyric pieces, elegies and satires and a fragment of an epic poem, Franciade,> were read with almost incredible admiration by his contemporaries and brought him.valuable presents from Queen Elizabeth of England and the imprisoned Queen of Scots. Many of his sonnets and odes possess considerable merit, but his style is marred by affectation and his pages are filled with freshly imported words from the classic languages. There are editions by Blanchemain (1856-67) and Marty-Laveaux (1:i7). Consult Perdrizet, P., 'Ronsard et la Reforme) (1902).