Joachim du Bellay
| Joachim du Bellay | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | c. 1522 Liré, Anjou, France |
| Died | 1 January 1560 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | French |
| Period | 16th century |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | Les Regrets |
Joachim du Bellay (also Joachim Du Bellay; French: [ʒoaʃɛ̃ dy bɛlɛ]; c. 1522 – 1 January 1560) was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.
Joachim du Bellay was born at the Castle of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay. His mother was Renée Chabot, daughter of Perceval Chabot and heiress of La Turmelière (Plus me plaît le séjour qu'ont bâti mes aïeux).
Both his parents died while he was still a child, and he was left to the guardianship of his elder brother, René du Bellay, who neglected his education, leaving him to run wild at La Turmelière. When he was twenty-three, however, he received permission to study law at the University of Poitiers, no doubt with a view to his obtaining preferment through his kinsman the Cardinal Jean du Bellay. At Poitiers he came in contact with the humanist Marc Antoine Muret, and with Jean Salmon Macrin (1490–1557), a Latin poet famous in his day. There too he probably met Jacques Peletier du Mans, who had published a translation of the Ars Poetica of Horace, with a preface in which much of the program advocated later by La Pléiade is to be found in outline.
It was probably in 1547 that du Bellay met Ronsard in an inn on the way to Poitiers, an event which may justly be regarded as the starting-point of the French school of Renaissance poetry. The two had much in common, and became fast friends. Du Bellay returned with Ronsard to Paris to join the circle of students of the humanities attached to Jean Dorat at the Collège de Coqueret.
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