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SEDUCTIVE TOPOGRAPHIES: THE LANGUAGES OF LANDSCAPE IN LA PUCE DE MADAME DES-ROCHES

Romanic Review, May 2004 by Tarte, Kendall

Two of the most interesting discourses to emerge in the sixteenth century were topographical description and the anatomical blason. These traditions appear to have little in common: one accompanied the development of cartographical techniques, the other was a literary fashion sparked by a contest among poets. They converge, however, in an anthology recording a salon game that Estienne Pasquier and Catherine Des Roches initiated during the 1579 Grands Jours de Poitiers.1 The humanist lawyer Pasquier's now famous encounter with Des Roches-their playful banter about a flea he claims to have seen on her breast-provides the pretext for the genesis of the collaborative volume of poetry that came out of the gatherings that Catherine and her mother Madeleine Des Roches hosted in their home.2 Poems by Pasquier and Des Roches set the tone for an extended series of exchanges on the subject of this insect: more than a dozen participants composed mock encomia on the flea. La Puce de Madame des-Roches presents the activities of a provincial salon at an important moment in Poitiers's history. It celebrates Catherine's body as a site of exploration and the city as a political and literary center.3

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Many of the poems in the collection bear witness to the context of its creation, the 1579 Grands jours de Poitiers.4 The poets of La Puce link the Dames Des Roches to Poitiers. The rhetoric of description and possession of the land complements the representations of individual parts of the female body. The salon visitors link Catherine Des Roches to Poitiers by linking the imagined details of her body to a mythologized vision of the city. Their poems create two corresponding imaginary topographies-a politicized "topography" of the female body of Catherine Des Roches and a feminized topography of the city of Poitiers. A consideration of the connection between landscape and sexuality in La Puce reveals the intricate associations between the language of topography and the language of the body. These two seemingly unrelated traditions intersect in several examples that merit close examination.5

The jocular atmosphere that inspired the literary contest of La Puce is apparent in the collected poems. The printed volume reconstructs the authors' relationships to one another: they address each other, translate and imitate their peers, and respond to each other's poems. The salon is a site of mutual congratulation and display of both learning and a sense of humor, and the anthology captures its spirit. The poets' references to each other, in the form of inscriptions of each other's names, illustrate this erudite playfulness. Pasquier and Madeleine Des Roches, for example, each construct a poem around a list of some of the book's contributors, transforming the proper names with elaborate anagrams and puns.6 References to the Dames Des Roches-not surprisingly, the most widespread of the inscriptions-play on the rich associations of the women's name, which literally means "of the rocks."7 The authors refer to the physical features of Poitiers as well as to familiar mythological places and figures associated with rocks. Their poetic vision of Poitiers and their praise of the Dames Des Roches certainly display the poets' inventiveness and erudition, but they also call attention to the people and place that inspired them.

The topography of Poitiers was prominent in the local popular imagination during the Renaissance. The elevated site of the city is itself closely surrounded by hills on three sides, offering an unusual setting that inspired authors of history and literature. Several historians of the 1569 Protestant siege on Poitiers provide detailed descriptions of the city's topography. Notably, they survey the advantages and disadvantages, for both defending and attacking armies, of the various elevations.8 In particular, the steep slopes on the right bank of the Clain opposite the city protected the Protestant troops led by Gaspard de Coligny. This location became known as the "rocher de Coligny." In her sonnet "Poitiers à Messieurs des Grandz Jours," Madeleine Des Roches refers to these local peaks-"Rochers hautains"-among them the "Passe-lourdin," a "rocher" on a precipice that was notoriously difficult to reach.9 François Rabelais links the Passelourdin to the Pierre levée, a nearby dolmen, making both rocks famous. In Rabelais's fanciful story of the Pierre levee's origin, Pantagruel, studying in Poitiers, builds the dolmen by taking a large rock from the Passelourdin, thus providing a leisure activity for students, who climb onto the rock to engrave their names and to enjoy food and drink there.10

Mythological references in La Puce recall the real and fictional rocks of Poitiers. Among the most common figures mentioned are the Muses, whom the poets associate with the Des Roches. In the late sixteenth century, the identification of a female poet as one of the Muses recalls the ancient Greek poet Sappho, whose works had recently been rediscovered and who was commonly referred to as the "tenth Muse."11 Catherine Des Roches becomes the tenth Muse in La Puce. Pierre le Loyer identifies Catherine as "une chaste & diuine pucelle, / Qu'ont adopté dans le nombre de dix / Les soeurs du mont à la crouppe iumelle."12 François de la Couldray wonders why Pasquier says that Sappho surpasses all other women, since Catherine "[e]n sagesse, en grace, en beauté, / En vertus, en murs, en doctrine / Surpasse la troupe plus digne / Du mont des neuf soeurs frequanté."13 Pasquier calls Catherine "une vierge de renom, / Qui merite d'auoir place / Au haut sommet de Parnasse."14 In these examples, the references to Parnassus-"mont à la crouppe iumelle," "mont des neuf soeurs," "haut sommet"-concern the physical characteristics of the Muses' mountain home. In more detailed instances, the mythical setting of Mount Parnassus blends with the topography of Poitiers, and both Madeleine and Catherine definitively replace the Muses. The physical associations of the Des Roches' name provide a rich metaphor for the association of the women with Poitiers and with Parnassus. References to rocks blend the attributes of the two places with the two women, and the inscription of their name-"rochers," "Roche," "Roches"-calls attention to this conflation. For example, the opening stanzas of Odet de Turnèbe's "La Puce" claim the presence of the Muses in Poitiers. The poet cites as evidence the sight of two rocks rising toward the sky: "Ces deux ROCHES qui iusqu'aux Cieux / Eleuent leur chef sourcilleux / Qui comme deux astres flamboye."15 These rocks indicate both people and place: the bodies of the Dames Des Roches, who raise their heads-"leur chef"-towards the sky, and the rocks of the double mountain, Parnassus, whose peaks point upwards.16 Whereas this example employs typical poetic conventions-the inscription of names and the reference to mythology-it also hints at the topographical tradition in which the poems in La Puce participate. The poets model their mythologized visions of Poitiers on the city's topography.

SEDUCTIVE TOPOGRAPHIES: THE LANGUAGES OF LANDSCAPE IN LA PUCE DE MADAME DES-ROCHES

Romanic Review, May 2004 by Tarte, Kendall

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