Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin

Biography

To advise of the king Louis XIII, general inspector of extraordinary of the wars, general secretary of the navy of Raising, Desmarest de Saint-Sorlin one was accustomed of the Hôtel of Rambouillet. It contributed with the Guirlande of Julie by a poem which was particularly admired: “The Violet”.

It was introduced by Faret and Malleville into the Company of the friends of Conrart where it lute its novel of the ARIANE (1632). Protected from the Cardinal of Richelieu, it belonged to the French Academy as of its creation and was the first chancellor.

Richelieu committed it to compose of the Tragédie S, which it did without much enthusiasm. It produced initially Aspasie (1636), which was represented with a success which seems incomprehensible today. He wrote then Mirame (1641), on a level imagined by the cardinal who, says one, itself composed some certain scenes and of which he arranged the intrigue so that it evokes the love of Anne of Austria for George Villiers de Buckingham. In spite of the expenses engaged for this production, which were assembled to nearly 300.000 ecus, the part fell as of the first representation. Desmarets also collaborated with the cardinal for an allegorical part, Europe , often allotted to Richelieu itself.

Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin composed two more tragi-comedies, Scipion and Roxane and a tragedy in prose, Erigone .

In 1645, Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin became extremely devout and, consequently, it produced primarily works of religious subject. It composed of the verse translations of the Office of the Virgin and the Imitation of Jesus-Christ and many religious poems like Marie-madeleine or the triumphing Grace . It fought with vehemence the Jansénisme and, at the end of its life, poured in is delirious mystical, affirming that it wrote under the dictation of God. According to the Dictionary Bouillet, it passed suddenly from an extreme relaxation to a devotion outraged, it fell into a species from fanatic madness, and proposed to the king in a writing Apocalyptique, entitled Avis of the St-Spirit, of raising an army to exterminate the heretics.

In 1657, Desmarets produced its poem epic Clovis or Christian France , in twenty-six songs (reduced to twenty songs in 1673), in which it highlighted the divine origins of French monarchy. This work was rented much by Jean Chapelain and was worth to him the sarcastic remarks of Boileau, which was hostile with the introduction of the marvellous Christian into epic poetry. Desmarest answered by a test entitled Comparaison of the language and French poetry with Greek and Latin the , in which he concluded with the superiority from the first and the Christian miracles on the pagan legends, and which gave the kickoff of the Querelle of Old and of Modern the where he showed one of keenest against the old ones.

Works

the ARIANE , novel (1632);
Aspasie , tragedy (1636);
Loves of the compass and the rule and those of the sun and the shade (1637);
the Visionaries , comedy in 5 acts, worms (1637);
Scipion the African , tragi-comedy (1639);
Roxane, history drawn from that of the Romans and Persians , tragi-comedy (1639);
Mirame , tragi-comedy (1641);
Europe , heroic comedy (1643);
Erigone , tragedy in prose;
walks of Richelieu or the Virtues chrestiennes (1653);
four books of the Imitation of Jesus-Christ, translated into worms (1654);
Clovis or Christian France , heroic poem in 26 songs (1657);
With the roy, on its conqueste of the Franche-Comté (1668);
Marie-Magdeleine or Triumph of the grace (1669);
Esther , heroic poem (1670);
the comparison of the language and the poesy Francoise, with Greek and Latin: and of the Greek, Latin poëtes & François and the Loves of Protée and Physis, dedicate to the beautiful spirits of France (1670);
the Defense of the heroic poem with some remarks on satyric works of the sior D *** , dialogs in worms and prose (1674);
Triumph of Louis and his century (1674);
the Defense of poetry (1675);
Abraham, or perfect Life , poem (1680).

External bond

Its plays and their representations on site CÉSAR
Biographical note of the French Academy

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