Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/591

Rh M A R T 563 MAROT, CLEMENT (1496-1544), one of the most agree able if not one of the greatest poets of France, and a figure of all but the first importance in her literary history, was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of the year 1496-97. He was, however, not a southern by blood, at least by his father s side. That father, Jean Murot, whose more correct name appears to have been Mares, Marais, or Marets, was a Norman of the neighbourhood of Caen. He was himself a poet of considerable merit, and held the post of escripvam (apparently uniting the duties of poet laureate and historio grapher) to Anne of Britanny. He had however, on what business or in what capacity is not known, resided in Cahors for a considerable time, and was twice married there, his second wife, whose name is not known, being the mother of Clement. The boy was &quot; brought into France &quot; it is his own expression, and is not unnoteworthy as showing the strict sense in which that term was still used at the beginning of the 16th century in 1506, and ha appears to have been educated at the university of Paris, and to have then begun the study of the law. But, whereas most other poets have had to cultivate poetry against their father s will, Jean Marot took great pains to instruct his son in the fashionable forms of versemaking, which indeed required not a little instruction. It was the palmy time of the rhetori ineurs, poets who combined stilted and pedantic language with an obstinate adherence to the allegorical manner of the 15th century and to the most complicated and artificial forms of the Ballade and the Rondeau. Clement himself practised with diligence this poetry (which he was to do more than any other man to over throw), and he has left panegyrics of its corypha?us Guillaume Cretin, the unfortunate suggester of the Ramina- grobis of Rabelais. Nor did he long continue even a nominal devotion to law. He became page to a certain Messire de Neuville, and this opened to him the road of court life. Besides this, his father s interest must have been not inconsiderable, and the house of Valois, which was about to hold the throne of France for the greater part of a century, was devoted to letters. As early as 1514, before the accession of Francis I., Clement presented to him his Judgment of Minos, and shortly afterwards he was either styled or styled himself facteur (poet) de la reine to Queen Claude. In 1519 he was attached to the suite of Marguerite d Angouleme, the king s sister, who was for many years to be the mainstay not only of him but of almost all French men of letters. In 1524 he drew 95 livres annually from her as a pension, and he had a post in the household of her husband the Due d Alen9on. It is certain that Marot, like most of Marguerite s literary court, and perhaps more than most of them, was greatly attracted by her gracious ways, her unfailing kindness, and her admirable intellectual accomplishments, but there is not the slightest ground for thinking that his attachment was other than platonic. . Indeed the most famous passage of his poems which relates to the future queen, in which he describes her &quot; sweet refusal with a sweeter smile,&quot; is tolerably decisive on the point. It is, however, evident that at this time either sentiment or matured critical judgment effected a great change in his style, a change which was wholly for the better. At the same time he celebrates a certain Diane, whom it has been sought to identify with Diane de Poitiers. There is nothing to support this idea and much against it, for it was an almost invariable habit of the poets of the 16th century, when the mistresses whom they celebrated were flesh and blood at all (which was not always the case), to celebrate them under pseudonyms. In the same year 1524, Marot accompanied Francis on his disastrous Italian campaign. He was wounded and taken at Pavia, but soon released, and he was back again at Paris by the beginning of 1525. His luck had, however, turned. Marguerite for intellectual reasons, and her brother for political, had hitherto favoured the double movementof Aufkldrung, partly humanist, partly Reforming, which distinguished the beginning of the century. For midable opposition to both forms of innovation, however, now began to be manifested, and Marot, who was at no time particularly prudent, was arrested on a charge of heresy and lodged in the Chatelet, February 1526. But this was only a foretaste of the coming trouble, and a friendly prelate, acting for Marguerite, extricated him from his durance before Easter. The imprisonment gave him occasion to write a vigorous poem on it entitled Enfir, which was afterwards imitated by his luckless friend Dolet. His father died about this time, and Marot seems to have been appointed to the place which Jean had latterly-enjoyed, that of valet de chambre to the king. He was certainly a mem ber of the royal household in 1528, with a stipend of 250 livres, besides which he had inherited property in Quercy. In 1 530, probably, he married. Next year he was again in trouble for heresy, and was again rescued ; this lime the king and queen of Navarre seem to have bailed him them selves. In 1532 he published, under the title of Adoles cence Clementine, & title the characteristic grace of which excuses its slight savour of affectation, the first printed col lection of his works, which was very popular, and was fre quently reprinted with additions. Dolet s edition of 1538 is believed to be the most authoritative. Unfortunately, however, the poet s enemies were by no means discouraged by their previous ill success, and the political situation was very unfavourable to the Reforming party. In 1535 Marot was again summoned to appear on the charge of heresy, and this time he was advised or thought it best to fly. He passed through Beam, and then made his way to Renee of Ferrara, a supporter, of the French Reformers as steadfast as her aunt Marguerite, and even more efficacious, because her dominions were out of France. At Ferrara he wrote a good deal, his work there including his celebrated Blasons (a descriptive poem, improved upon mediaeval models), which set all the verse writers of France imitating them. But the duchess Renee was not able to persuade her husband, Ercole d Este, to share her views, and Marot had to quit the city. He then went to Venice, but before very long obtained per mission to return to France. Francis himself, though a fickle and unsafe patron, was attached to him, and in 1539 gave him a house and grounds in the suburbs. It was at this time that his famous translations of the Psalms appeared. The merit of these has been sometimes denied, owing apparently to the absurd partiality which seems in the case of some critics to make it impossible for the reader to appreciate the manner of a work to the matter of which he is opposed on political or religious grounds. It is, how ever, considerable, and the powerful influence which the book exercised on contemporaries is not denied by any one. The great persons of the court chose different pieces, each as his or her favourite. They were sung in court and city, and they are said, with exaggeration doubtless, but still with a basis of truth, to have done more than anything else to advance the cause of the Reformation in France. Indeed the vernacular prose translations of the Scriptures were in that country of little merit or power, and the form of poetry was still preferred to prose, even for the most incongruous subjects. At the same time Marot engaged in a curious literary quarrel characteristic of the time, with a bad poet named Sagon. Half the verse writers of France ranged themselves among the Mafotiques or the Sagontiques, and a great deal of versified abuse was exchanged. The victory, as far as wit was concerned, naturally rested with Marot, but his biographers are probably not fanciful in supposing that a certain amount of odium was created against him by