Du Bellay, Joachim << doo buh LAY, zhaw a KEEM >> (1522-1560), was a French poet. With his friend Pierre de Ronsard, he founded a group of poets called the Pleiade. Du Bellay’s essay Defense and Glorification of the French Language (1549) established the literary doctrines of the group.
Du Bellay was born in Anjou of a noble, but poor, family. He lived in Rome from 1553 to 1557, and he wrote the major parts of two brilliant volumes of verse, Antiquities of Rome and Regrets (both 1558), while there. In Antiquities, he praises the virtues and continuing influence of ancient Rome. In Regrets, written during a self-imposed exile from France, he satirizes the corruption of modern Rome and speaks with both bitter disillusionment and longing of his native country. He died on Jan. 1, 1560.
