The marriage between Margaret of France and the Duke of Savoy (1559) From the triumph of Du Bellay’s epithalamium to Ronsard’s counter-hymeneal

The marriage between the Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France, in 1559, inspired a wealth of poetry. Among these poems, those penned by Du Bellay and Ronsard stand out. Du Bellay’s epithalamium combines various traditions of wedding writing, whereas Ronsard offers a discourse and a pastoral song—two surprising texts, given the occasion—which, rather than rejoicing, express the most heartrending pain.