From Candide to La Pleiade, and other "novelties"

I was hoping to start on Montaigne, but the commentary I requested through ILL hasn’t arrived yet. In a way, it’s a blessing, as it gives us time to begin reading Livre I—our homework for future reference.

Right away, we could explore his contemporaries known as La Pléiade. I think I could babble about Étienne Jodelle. It would be great if someone else could take up another figure—say, Ronsard (1). Let’s try to think of what civilizational shifts shaped their work, and conversely. For instance, thinking back to our last meetup on the Rationalists in connection with Candide, I can already see a common thread (2,3).

Besides this, we could return to Candide itself (4), and maybe browse some 19th-century French classics an[other] member is expected to bring along—if only to pick one for future study.

(1) Stick to your author. That way, when we meet, one can test their ability to interpret a text on the spot, with the more knowledgeable party guiding them through. It's more engaging than one-way lecturing—though we can fall back on that if need be.
(2) Remember how this all started as a way of revisiting some unfinished business from my school days? I remembered cultiver son jardin—the moral of the tale—but everything else had slipped away.
(3) The use of je paving the way for Descartes’ Cogito, ergo sum.
(4) At the last event, I covered some of the recommended article on Voltaire and Leibniz, but not in full. A memory aid: les lois générales versus les situations particulières. Off the top of my mind—I should keep notes, some open questions: why does Deism imply optimism?