During the captivity of Francis I. in Spain, Clement was apprehended on a suspicion of heresy, and confined in the Châtelet at Paris, from whence he was transferred to Chartres. Having been delivered through the intercession of his friends, but still fearing a second imprisonment, he took refuge, first with Margaret of Navarre, the King's sister, and afterwards at Ferrara, with Renée, Duchess of that city, and daughter of Louis XII. To these events in his life he refers in some verses addressed to those through whose kindness he had obtained his freedom. J'euz à Paris prison fort inhumaine: A Chartres fuz doucement encloué : "At Paris my prison was a cruel one; in my confinement at Chartres I had milder usage. Now I go where my pleasure leads me. It is good and evil. God be praised for all." At Ferrara, he contracted a friendship with Calvin, and is said to have embraced the opinions of that reformer. But at the solicitation of Paul III. the Duke of Ferrara determined on banishing all the wits and learned men, who were suspected of heresy, out of his territories; and the Duchess prevailed on the King of France to allow Marot to return to his court, and to restore him to favour, on condition of his again becoming a dutiful son to the Church. Against the charge of dissension he thus defends himself: Point ne suis Lutheriste, Ne Zuinglien, et moins Anabaptiste : Je suis celuy, qui prens plaisir, et peine A Monsieur Bouchart, Docteur en Theologie. "I am neither Lutheran nor Zuinglian; and still less an Anabaptist: I am of God by his Son Jesus Christ. I am one that have written many a poem; from none of which a single line can be adduced contrary to the divine law. I am one whose delight and whose labour it is to exalt my Saviour and his all-gracious Mother. The best proof of this may be found in my writings." From his verses to the King, written during his residence at Ferrara, it appears that he thought himself in danger of being put to the stake as a heretic. The argument which he uses to defend himself on account of having prohibited books in his possession, are much the same as Milton has since urged on a similar subject in his Areopagitica. On his return to France in 1536, he employed himself in translating some of the Psalms into French metre, from the version of Vatable, the royal professor of Hebrew, which gave so much scandal to the doctors of the Sorbonne, that they induced the King to prevent him from continuing his work. Still however he persisted in delivering his sentiments on religion with such freedom as to keep alive the resentment of his enemies; and he at last found' it necessary to remove to Geneva. Here he was accused of having committed some gross irregularities of conduct, of which I am willing to believe him innocent. He then retired to Turin, and died in ́ poverty at the age of sixty. * THIBAUT, KING OF NAVARRE. WHETHER THIBAUT, King of Navarre, was or was not the favoured lover of Blanch, Queen Regent of France, and mother of Louis the Ninth, is a question that has been much debated. Those, who maintain the affirmative, rely chiefly on the hearsay evidence of *This notice of Thibaut, as it carries us back to an earlier period than any of the after pages, so was it written and published prior to all the rest. It is, however, placed second in this volume, because the account of Clement Marot purports to introduce us to the series.-ED. C Matthew Paris, and on the assertion of an old French chronicler, whose name and age are unknown. On the other side are to be taken into the account the total silence of Joinville, the contemporary historian on the subject, and that of several other annalists who lived at or near the time, the general good character of Blanch, and the disparity of her years, for she was nearly old enough to be the mother of Thibaut. But a scandalous report, however improbable, when it has been once broached, seldom fails to spread far and wide; and the "Fama refert" of Matthew has been eagerly caught at by a host of later writers,-amongst whom are Duhaillan, the first of French historians, who incorporated the annals of his country into the narration; Favin, who wrote the history of Navarre ; Mezerai; Rapin; and the Père Daniel. It is well known that the curtailment of one word, which a hasty scribe had reduced to the unlucky consonants prtbns, has thrown the whole life and character of Petrarch's Laura into confusion and perplexity. Did he mean it for parturitionibus?-He did, says the Abbé de Sade, at the same time claiming for himself the honour to derive his parentage from one of these ill-omened throes; and immediately the modest nymph of the Sorga is transformed into a married coquette, with as large a litter about her as the boon goddess in Mr. Hilton's picture has, and the little biographer straining after his own bubble at the top. Shall we substitute perturbationibus with Lord Woodhouselee?--It is quite another story: Laura is not only reinstated in her "single blessedness," but is rendered an object of interest and compassion by her numerous and undeserved sufferings. Something of the same sort has happened in the case we are now considering. In the first of his songs, according to one of the manuscripts in the Royal Library at Paris,* the King of Navarre calls his mistress "La blonde couronnée,”. -" The crowned fair." "On reading this," says the editor of the Chansons,† (to whose account of the matter I am indebted for my information,) "I had no doubt but that Thibaut was enamoured of Blanch." But the inadvertence of a transcriber had again thrown an unmerited suspicion on the innocent. On consulting other written copies of the same song, the candid inquirer owned that he had discovered reasons for altering his mind. In them, "La blonde colorée"‡ were the words; which, in Shakspeare's language, may be rendered, one * No. 7222. + Les Poesies du Roy de Navarre, avec des Notes et un Glossaire François, &c. Paris, 1742. 2 Tom. 8vo. The same combination of words occurs elsewhere in these songs, and in the Romant de la Rose:— La face blanche colorée, L'halcine douce et savourée. |