Laudator Temporis Acti

Morris Bishop, Ronsard: Prince of Poets (1940; rpt. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1959), pp. 9-11:

One entered the château from the village side, under the view of two towers, part of a medieval defensive system which served Louis de Ronsard as a quarry for his new buildings. The Middle Ages had based their architecture on fear, not on display. Even in the new Renaissance manor, fear showed its blind face. The outer wall of La Possonnière had few apertures or none at all; there was no need to tempt an enemy with a crossbow or a blazing torch. One passed into the interior court through a low, wide gate surmounted by a Gothic arch and by a single story with its rooms.

One stood then in a rectangular space, securely walled on four sides. The forbidding face of the exterior was not needed here. The builder could indulge his fancy, and make a home for happy people in security. On the north side rose the main building, the quarters of the Ronsard family. It was, and is today, a graceful and comely structure, ornamented with the Italian elegance Louis de Ronsard loved. Enormous windows, symbols of Renaissance enlightenment, open to the southern sun. The grace of the façade is marred, but the charm of incongruousness is enhanced, by a pentagonal medieval tower, out-topping the roof-line, and bearing, beneath its crown, a richly ornamented Renaissance window. The old tower peers abroad like an ancient bedizened patrician of Antonio Moro or Titian.

At the base of the tower opens a narrow door giving access to the spiral staircase contained within. Over the door is an elaborately carved Italian lintel, with the inscribed dedication of the house: VOLVPTATI ET GRATIIS, to pleasure and the Graces. A shield, a part of the decoration, bears the arms of the Ronsards, three entwined fish called rosses, the English red-eye or rudd.

The high window in the tower has the inscription: DOMÎ OCUL. LONGE SPEC., for Domini oculus longe speculatur, the master's eye sees far. Between two of the windows of the facade is carved a wild rose bush, licked by flames, to signify ronce ard, the brambles burn, a punning derivation of the master's name. Elsewhere on the facade the eye catches the words: AVANT PARTIR, before we depart; and RESPICE FINEM, look to the end; and VERITAS FILIA TEMPORIS, truth the daughter of time; and DNE CONCERVA ME, God save me. Here was matter for a child to spell and meditate upon.

The east side of the courtyard was formed by one or those natural, nearly perpendicular walls common in the Vendômois, where ancient streams have cut and quarried the soft tufa underlying all the region. In this yielding stone Louis, or some Ronsard before him, dug a series of eight caves. Each is marked by an appropriate motto. The first is surcharged, LA BVANDERIE BELLE, the pretty laundry; the second, LA FOVRIERE, the hay-loft, with two hay-bundles grossly carved; the third, VVLCANO ET DILIGENTIAE, to Vulcan and diligence, with three kettles to make the meaning clear; the fourth, VINA BARBARA, vins ordinaires, or possibly, wines from afar, superior wines; the fifth, a jug and two glasses, and CVI DES VIDETO, look well to whom thou givest, an ungenerous motto for the storage-place of delicacies; the sixth, CVSTODIA DAPVM, the food-cellar; the seventh, mysteriously, SVSTINE ET ABSTINE, bear and forbear, Epictetus's counsel, perhaps addressed ironically to prisoners whom the cavern quartered; and the eighth, TIBI SOLI GLORIA, to Thee alone the glory, the sign of a chapel or oratory.

The south side of the court consisted of farm-buildings, which have now disappeared. In the southwest angle stood a small chapel. The west side was closed by a crenelated wall, with a continuous step along its top, for communication or for defense.

Of the interior of the manor-house, not much has survived an outrageous century, from about 1750 to 1850, when the building served as farmers' quarters. There is the noble fireplace of the great hall, all carved stone up to the lofty ceiling, and the masterpiece of Louis de Ronsard's Italian sculptors. Viol and lute, the attributes of poetry, enclose the main panel, which represents the burning wild rose bushes of the Ronsards. Out of the flame emerges the family shield, and the confident device: NON FALVNT FVTVRA MERENTEM, the future shall not fail the well-deserving. Above, a stone banner sown with fleurs-de-lis, surrounding the shield of France. And over all, the escutcheons of forty families allied to the master's line.

In the room which was apparently Louis de Ronsard's office and study is another carven fireplace, with cupids, stars, suns, heraldic beasts, viols, and lutes, and the device: NYQVIT NYMIS, dog-Latin for the ancient rule, nothing in excess.