ABSTRACT
During the tumultuous years following the death of Henri II in 1559, Pierre de Ronsard set aside the lyric poet’s lyre that had already brought him acclaim and took up his pen to defend the unity of France. In the religious and political conflict that threatened to divide the nation, he aligned himself with the strategies of Catherine de Médicis and her chancellor Michel de l’Hospital, indicting those who fanned the flames of discord and proclaiming the necessity for the resolution of the crisis in impassioned verse that refused to be silenced. When he was summoned by the queen to participate in the preparation of the festivities of February 1564, Ronsard’s qualifications were not only his poetic facility but demonstrated convictions fully in accord with those of Catherine herself. While queen and poet followed very different paths to Fontainebleau, tracing those paths will demonstrate how little of their collaboration on the Queen’s Day can be understood through recourse to the common model of patronage and subservience often invoked to account for participation of the “prince of poets” in courtly spectacles of various kinds.
