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SEDUCTIVE TOPOGRAPHIES: THE LANGUAGES OF LANDSCAPE IN LA PUCE DE MADAME DES-ROCHES
Romanic Review, May 2004 by Tarte, Kendall
The object of Mercury's attention as he descends towards Poitiers merits consideration. Looking out over the landscape, his view is limited to a pair of objects, named first as two incomparable suns-"deux soleils, que le soleil n'egale." Couldray plays with the Petrarchan image of the sun, which suggests the beloved.25 The disorienting vision of two suns beneath Mercury startles, as if rising and falling had become confused and the sun had doubled. The subsequent reference to Icarus's fall implies danger. Opening the quatrain that refers to Icarus, these two suns recall him and his father Daedalus. The tercets, on the other hand, recall a positive aspect earlier in the Ovidian myth-Icarus's delight at the panorama below him26-and resolve the tension of the mysterious pair of suns. Couldray pays tribute to the Ovidian characters in his reference to another parent and child: Madeleine and Catherine Des Roches. In the first tercet, repeated allusions to the double object in the landscape-beginning with "deux beaux rochers"-make explicit the reference to the Des Roches and add a third mythological allusion, to the Muses on Parnassus. Like his fellow poets, Couldray blurs an imagined topography of Poitiers with that of Parnassus and locates the Des Roches in this Poitevin/Parnassian landscape. Mercury's realization-introduced by "Ha! Dit-il"-of the Muses' presence finalizes their transfer, hinted at in the first tercet. From now on-"desormais"-they perform their miracles over the Clain, the river that runs through Poitiers. The Renaissance myth of the immigration of the Muses to France-common to the Pléiade, for example-signals the glory of contemporary poets. Applying the doctrine of translatio studii, Couldray identifies the Dames Des Roches through a classical heritage that links them to an ancient site of inspiration.27 He thus marks the fruitful environment of the Poitiers Grands Jours: the Des Roches benefit from this inspiration in their compositions, but they also inspire others, namely, the puce poets.
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Mercury's perspective of the city points to the borrowings from classical culture, recalling passages from Virgil and Ovid and connecting mythological and contemporary figures. It also reveals the influence of recent visual techniques, in representations of urban space such as the prospect, or townscape, and the map. Advances in mapmaking techniques as well as a new precision in the execution of townscapes and bird's-eye views contributed to the proliferation of local and regional maps and views in the late Renaissance.28 These images influenced written descriptions of the urban space, from the geographer's general overview of the world to the specific regional detail of the chorographer.29 Couldray's sonnet participates in both the written tradition of chorography and the visual tradition of the city view. The interest in detail belongs to the field of the chorographer, whose precise description of a limited space concentrates on its quality, rather than quantity. The poet highlights a single aspect of Poitiers's topography, the hills-or "rochers"-that distinguish the city. He compiles a list of expressions to designate this double object and devotes the sonnet's tercets to its description. The related visual tradition influences the perspective from which Mercury, and the reader, approach this place. As in a townscape, Couldray offers a sweeping-though selective and imaginary-overview of Poitiers. Like someone looking at the engraving of an urban prospect, Mercury has a complete, bird's-eye view of that city.
