Charles de Saint-Évremond

Charles Marguetel of Saint-Denis , lord of Saint-Évremond , born on April 1st, 1614 with Saint-Denis-the-Gast and dead on September 20th, 1703 with London, is a Moraliste and Critique Libertin French.

Life

Raised among Jesuits, with the college of Clermont to Paris, it began its right to Caen, then followed with distinction the military career. This soldier well-read man and society man first of all knew a brilliant military career in the staff of the prince de Condé under the duke of Enghien and under the marshal of Hocquincourt. Its bravery announced it to Rocroy, in Freiburg, in Nordlingen and in the campaigns of Germany and of Flandres.

At the same time it cultivated the letters with a spirit of mocking remark and satire, formant of the relations with men of mark, with Turenne, Créquy, D' Olonne, Clérembault, without never neglecting the pleasure towards which its nature épicurienne carried, when its mocking remarks on Condé made him lose his lieutenancy in 1648. The Fronde gave the opportunity to him to show at the same time its courage and its spirit. Having taken the party of the Court, of which he became brigadier in 1652, he remained faithful to the royal cause and composed a spiritual lampoon: the Retirement of Mr. de Longueville in Normandy .

Sought then in the company like the type of what one called it gentleman and the honest man , charming the living rooms by its sharp talk and the lanes by its madrigaux, holding the first role at Ninon de Lenclos, making figure with the suppers of the gourmets well-read men, it led a life entirely in conformity to its tastes, when it fell into disgrace from the king following the discovery in 1661 from its Lettre to the marquis de Créqui on the peace from the Pyrenees (1659) criticizing Mazarin.

Obliged to exile towards the end of 1661, it takes refuge in Holland, then in England where the court and the city made him warm welcome very. The king Charles II accommodated it with benevolence and made him a pension of three hundred pounds sterling. It carried out a life of epicurean, attending the elite of the aristocracy and the men of letters. When the duchess of Mazarin is established in London, it was made its chancellor, helped it to constitute the famous living room where the writers of AngIeterre met, and became one of the principal characters about it. The use of French was so widespread at the time in England that Saint-Évremond tried hard to learn from the English only that which it needed for the daily life and the relations with the peasants, when it resided at the countryside. He attended, moreover, with Dryden, Temple, Swift, the literary coffee of Will, without stopping his relations with his friends of France, who did not let anything to him be unaware of interests and businesses of the spirit. One and other with dimensions of the Handle, one called some with his taste in the delicate questions.

Only the Lettre with the marquis de Créqui did not appear to be enough to explain a so long discredit against him; Voltaire, in the Century of Louis XIV , allots it to a secret cause, remained unknown. Its manners was perhaps not foreign with its disgrace. He would have been the recipient of one of the Lettres of Cyrano of Bergerac addressed under the name “Miss de Saint-Denis”. Itself referred to the reason for which the stay of England appeared to him from now on preferable with that of France:

I saw the time of good the Régence,

Temps when a happy abundance

Temps reigned when the city as well as the court

breathed only the plays and the love.

an lenient policy

Of our innocent nature

Favorisait all the desires

Any taste appeared legitimate

the soft error was not called crime.

the delicate defects named pleasures.

The many steps tried to put an end to its exile led only after 1688 when Louis XIV finally authorizes it to return to France in 1689 but, at that time, its great age, the practices taken, the favors of Guillaume III, his affection for the duchess of Mazarin did not enable him to accept the grace awaited so a long time. He preferred to finish his life in London where he died out with more than ninety years, without on several occasions separating philosophy which had always characterized it, by refusing the visit as well priests as pastors. He had despite everything the honor of one burial to the Abbaye of Westminster.

Work

Except for its Comedy of the academists scoffing the suppressions carried out on the language by the French Academy, its works, of alive sound, were diffused clandestinely. They were published only after its death. By many aspects, the incredulity and the Skepticism which show through at that which are defined itself as “a philosopher also far away from superstitious and of the irreligious person; voluptuous which does not have less aversion for the vice than of inclination for the pleasures” lets predict the philosophical tendencies which will characterize the Lumières at the next century. A particular feature of its literary aspect is indeed to represent the critic of profession such as one finds it will establish at the next century. Its writings indicate a tolerance and an independence of mind which do of it one of the principal representatives of the current libertine of. Saint-Évremond seems there the type even of the ideal of the “honest man” sought by his century. In its essays, generally short, it opens often right outlines, always clever. With delicacy, with sagacity, the smoothness of the reason, it links measurement, without ceasing judging freely according to its personal opinions. It emitted, in the Querelle of Old and of Modern the, of the ideas of rightest: “II is necessary to be appropriate, says it, that the Poetic one of Aristote is an excellent work; however there is nothing enough perfect to regulate all the nations and every century… If Homère lived at present, it would make admirable poems, adapted to the century when it would write. Its poëmes will be always masterpieces, not in all the models. They will form our judgment and the judgment will regulate the provision of the things present.”.

Religious incredulity characterized this epicurean much less convinced of the immortality of the heart than of the authenticity of good expensive and its erudite drinking bouts. The best of its works is the Conversation of the marshal of Hocquincourt with the father Canaye who is a wonder of spirit and mocking remark. Its historical work, the Réflexions on the various geniuses of the Roman people (1663) inspired the theories of Montesquieu. In his opuscules, Saint-Évremond approached various topics going of the literature in On our comedies , Of some Spanish, Italian books and French , Réflexions on the old and modern tragedy and Défense of some parts of Corneille , with the modern history in Parallèle of Mr. the Prince and Mr. de Turenne . It is without question in its abundant correspondence that this one delivered the best of a thought marked to the seal of independence, skepticism, sometimes of the irony which refused any systematic mind.

The writing remained nevertheless an entertainment for Saint-Évremond who refused a long time to make print his works. They circulated in manuscripts and their scarcity added to success. One made some, without his assent, of the not very exact editions. That of Barbin (1668, in-12) was removed so quickly that one started to print under his name much parts which were not him. Lastly, it decided to prepare with Of Maizeaux an edition that this one published after its death, under the title of True works of Mr. de Saint-Évremond, published on the manuscripts of the author (London, 1705, 3 vol. in-4°; 1708, 7 vol. in-12, Amsterdam, 1726, 7 vol. in-12, Paris, 1740, 10 vol. in-12; 1753, 12 vol. in-12).

Nonexhaustive bibliography

Works frays (1643-1692),
Académistes (1650) dialogued satire, composed against the French Academy
Retirement of Mr. the duke of Longueville in Normandy
Letter with the marquis de Créqui on peace of the Pyrenees (1659)
Conversation of the marshal of Hocquincourt with the Father Canaye
Reflections on the various geniuses of the Roman people (1663)
Second part of the works meslées (1668),
On our comedies , where the author scoffs the new kind at spectacle introduced in France.
Of some Spanish, Italian books and French
Reflections on the old and modern tragedy
Defense of some parts of Parallel Crow
of Mr. the Prince and Mr. de Turenne
Speech on Épicure
Thought on honesty
Considerations on Hannibal
Judgment on Tacit and Salluste
the idea of the woman who is not
Jugement on sciences where can apply an honest man
Dissertation on the tragedy of Alexandre
Fragment of a written letter of $the Hague
Of the second Punic War
Of the eloquence, drawn from Pétrone
the matron of Éphèse

Editions

the Opera , ED. Robert Finch and Eugene Joliat, Geneva, Droz, 1979
Works in prose , ED. Rene Ternois, Paris, Didier, 1962
the Comedy of the academists , ED. Louis d' Espinay Ételan, Paolo Carile and Al , Paris, Nizet, 1976
Talks on all things , ED. David Bensoussan, Paris, Desjonquères, 1998 ISBN 2843210100 philosophical
Written , ED. Jean-Pierre Jackson, Paris, Alive, 1996 ISBN 2911737016
Reflections on the various geniuses of the Roman people in various times of the republic , Napoli, Jovene, 1982
philosophical Conversations and other writings , Paris, Filbert, 1926
Letters , ED. intro. Rene Ternois, Paris, Didier, 1967
Maxims and various works , Paris, Editions of the Modern world, 1900-1965
Thought of Épicure preceded by a Test on the morals of Épicure Paris, Payot 1900

Works on line

Speech on Épicure , Paris, C. Barbin, 1684
Œuvres meslées of Mr. D. *** of S. Evremont Volume I Volume II Volume III Volume IV Volume V Volume VI Volume VII Volume VIII Volume IX Tome X Volume XI , Paris, C. Barbin, 1693
the academists: comedy , Paris, Charavay brothers, 1879

References

Antoine Adam, Libertines with the , Paris, Buchet/Chastel 1964
Patrick Andrivet, Saint-Évremond and Roman history , Orleans, Paradigm, 1998 ISBN 2868781845
H.T. Barnwell, the Ideas morals and criticisms of Saint-Évremond: test of explanatory analysis , Paris, PUF, 1957
Patrice Bouysse, Test on the youth of a moralist: Saint-Évremond (1614-1661) , Seattle, Papers one French Seventeenth Century Literature, 1987
Gustave Cohen, the Stay of Saint-Évremond in Holland , Paris, Champion, 1926
Walter Daniels, Melville Saint-Évremond in England , Versailles, L. Luce, 1907
Soûad Guellouz, Between Baroque and lights: Saint-Évremond (1614-1703): conference of Cerisy-the-Room (25- September 27th, 1998) , Caen: University presses of Caen, 2000 ISBN 2841331113
Suzanne Guellouz, Saint-Évremond with the mirror of time: acts of the conference of tercentenary of its death, Caen - Saint-Lo (9 October 11th, 2003) , Tübingen, Narr, 2005 ISBN 3823361155
Célestin Hippeau, Norman Writers with: Of the Perron, Malherbe, Wood-Robert, Sarasin, P. Of Bosc, Saint-Évremond , Geneva, Slatkine Reprints, 1970
Mario Paul Lafargue, Saint-Évremond; or, the Pétrone of the , Paris, Company of external and colonial editions, 1945
Gustave Merlet Saint-Évremond: moral and literary historical study; followed fragments in worms and prose , Paris, A. Sauton, 1870
Luigi de Nardis, It Cortegiano E the eroe, studio known Saint-Évremond , Firenze, Nuova Italia Editor, 1964
Small Leon, the Fountain and Évremond: or, the temptation of England , Toulouse, Privat, 1953
Jacques Provost, Libertines of the , v. 2, Paris, Gallimard, 1998-2004 ISBN 2070115690
Gottlob Reinhardt, Saint-Évremonds Urteile und Gedanken üer die alten Griechen und Römer , Saalfeld amndt Saale, 1900
Léonard A.Rosmarin, Saint-Évremond: artist of the euphoria , Birmingham, Summa Publications, 1987 ISBN 0917786521
Albert-Marie Schmidt, Saint-Évremond; or, humanistic impure the , Paris, Editions of the Rider, 1932
K. Spalatin, Saint-Évremond , Zagreb, Thesis of doctorate of the University of Zagreb, 1934
Claude Taittinger, Saint-Évremond, or, the good use of the pleasures , Paris, Perrin, 1990 ISBN 2262007659

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