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SEDUCTIVE TOPOGRAPHIES: THE LANGUAGES OF LANDSCAPE IN LA PUCE DE MADAME DES-ROCHES
Romanic Review, May 2004 by Tarte, Kendall
Michel de Certeau's discussion of walking in the city stresses the singularity of such a perspective. He points out the pleasure of reading the "text" of the city from an elevated distance. Comparing someone who looks at the city from above to Icarus, he notes that the elevation transforms this viewer into a "voyeur," who possesses the eye of a god, "un OEil solaire, un regard de dieu."30 Certeau's vocabulary emphasizes the idea of domination: he writes of "le plaisir de surplomber" New York City, to be raised up to "l'emprise de la ville." The desire to see the entire city from an elevation-and thus to dominate it-contrasts with the confinement of the body down below, where one is "enlacé par les rues," "possédé," like a fallen Icarus. These walkers-"marcheurs"-lack the complete knowledge of the city granted to "voyeurs." A similar appropriation of city space occurs in engravings of townscapes, which for the first time in the sixteenth century provided the detail necessary for citizens to locate specific features of their city. The results of these new techniques encouraged a sense of civic pride and allowed rulers to impress others with their vast possessions and wide-ranging authority.31 Just as a city dweller could find particular monuments in contemporary visual renderings, Couldray recognizes-and thus praises-important people, beginning with the Dames Des Roches.32
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The pleasure of the view-of the city and the women-that Couldray accords Mercury characterizes other poems in La Puce. Specifically, several poems dedicated to the flea associate the topography of the land with features of the female body and thereby reveal a desire for domination.33 The poets transform the flea using myths of metamorphosis. Through various incarnations of the insect, they adopt roles that allow proximity to this female body. The fictional animal explores places that these men would not otherwise dare to mention in the conversations of polite salon society; it provides a pretext for their literary conquest of Catherine Des Roches's body.
In "Apollon en Puce," flattering comparisons of an elephant and a griffin with the flea precede a description of its current status, perched on the woman's breast:34
Toy tu as trop mieux regardé,
Puis franchi d'un braue courage,
De plain vol, & puis possedé
Le plus bel astre de nostre âge.
Volant droit tu sçeus te percher
Sur cette colline iumelle:
Où deuant toy se vint nicher
La Muse & la Grace auec elle.35
The rich vocabulary of this passage suggests several interpretations. Firstly, in the context of comparisons with real and mythical animals, a literal reading shows the flea in flight-"[vjolant droit." Searching for a star-"astre"-it lands on a double mountain peak-"colline iumelle"-where it is joined by a Muse and a personified Grace. secondly, a metaphorical reading draws on the multiple meanings of the words with the root vol-"vol," "[v]olant"-and aligns Catherine Des Roches with the "plus bel astre."36 The word's associations with robbery and despoliation complement the idea of flight. In this reading, the flea attacks the woman's body, landing on the "colline iumelle," her breast. The narration of the flea's possession of the female body includes additional vocabulary of attack that describes the insect's completed actions: "franchi d'un braue courage," "possedé." The repetition of the word "vol" in a different context-the adverbial expression "[d]e plain vol" describes the flea's movement-reinforces the idea of conquest.37
