Theophilus de Viau

Its life

Born in a Protestant family, the religious beliefs of Theophilus de Viau did not resist the spectacle of the quarrels between theologists of which he had been the witness at the time of his schooling to the academy of Saumur and the university of Leyde. It joint with a travelling theater company. In 1615, it settles in Paris, where it carries out merry life while becoming a brilliant poet of court. It is undoubtedly at that time that he was the friend of the poet Guez de Balzac. It takes share of 1615 - 16 with the Protestant wars in Guyenne with the service of the count de Candale. Forgiven after the war, it takes again its life of brilliance poet of court. Entered in contact with the ideas épicuriennes of the Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini which called the immortality of the heart into question, its conversion with Catholicism by no means prevents it from remaining libertine of spirit and heart. Its irreligion, its ideas libertines and its “manners” are worth to him to be banished of France in 1619. In 1620, it is allocated to the court after having travelled in England. To the publication under its name of a collection of licencieux poems, the Parnassus satyric in 1622, it, on denunciation of the Jésuites, is condemned to appear naked feet in front of Notre Dame de Paris and to be burned alive in 1623. The sentence is carried out in effigy while Theophilus hides. Caught at the time it tried to pass in England, it is imprisoned with the Conciergerie during nearly two years tandis the Garasse father is devoted to a true analysis of text of its poems to obtain its death sentence by proving that it slipped there of allusions to sodomy. Not less fifty-five booklets will be published for and against Theophilus at the time of this business which will mobilize the intellectuals and the writers of the time. During this time, Theophilus writes Plainte of Theophilus to his friend Tircis reproaching his lover, Jacques Vallée of the Bars, his little of eagerness to draw it from business. Its sentence commuted to stop of perpetual exile, Theophilus will spend the last months of its life to Chantilly under the protection of the duke of Montmorency.

One owes him of the plays, of which the tragedy tragic Loves of Pyrame and Thisbé which, given in 1621, gained a sharp success. It remained involuntarily celebrates for the double direction permitted by the worms “ It reddens about it, the traitor! ”, sentence pronounced makes some by unfortunate the Thisbé, contemplating the dagger with which his/her lover Pyrame has just committed suicide:

Ah ! here the dagger which blood of its Master

was soiled loosely. He reddens about it, the traitor!

Edmond Rostand taken again it towards in Cyrano of Bergerac :

Finally parodying Pyrame in a sob:

here it is thus this nose which features of its Master

destroyed the harmony! He reddens about it, the traitor!

Faithful to esthetics baroque, it was shown, in its poetry (lyric poems, satirical sonnets, odes and elegies), resolutely hostile with the new traditional constraints imposed by Malherbe. This refusal to fold with the new order was worth to him to be éreinté by Boileau:

the Every day at the court stupid of quality

Can judge through with impunity,

With Malherbe, Racan, prefer Theophilus…

Its a corbel in front of me croasse , which depicts a fantastic scene of thunder, snakes and of fire shows that it was remained attached to the significant images of the time baroque. Two of its poetries are pleas melancholic persons addressed to the king on his imprisonment or his exile. This expression of sadness is found in its Ode on the Loneliness which combines traditional reasons with an elegy about the poet in the middle of a forest. Forgotten at the time traditional, Theophilus de Viau was redécouvert by the romantic ones, at the 19th century, in particular Théophile Gautier.

Esthetics

Theophilus presents a esthetic proclamation at the end of the Élégie to a lady . He shows himself at the same time ambitious and off-hand, libertine and modern.

: I want to make worms which are not constrained,

Promener my spirit by small intentions,

Chercher secret places where nothing displeases to me,

Méditer with leisure, to dream all with my ease,

Employer a whole hour to reflect me in water,

Ouïr as while thinking the race of a brook,

Écrire in wood, to stop me, conceal to me,

Composer a quatrain, without thinking of doing it.

After me to be brightened by this soft error,

I want that a great intention heats my fury,

That a ten year old work holds me with the constraint,

Of some beautiful Poem, where you will be depicted:

There if my wills do not fail to be able,

I will have well sorrow in this pleasant duty.

In so high company where my spirit begins,

It would be necessary to invent some new language,

Prendre a new spirit, to think and say better

That never the men and the Gods thought.

In First day , account interfered many digressions with the manner of Montaigne, it also proclaims the requirement to write with modern the .

: It is necessary that the speech is firm, that the direction is natural and easy there, the language express and meaning; the afféteries are only mollesse and that artifice, which is never without effort and confusion. These larcenies which one calls imitation of the old Authors must say ornaments which are not with our mode. It is necessary to write with the modern one; Demosthene and Virgile did not write in our time, and we could not write in their century; their books when they did them were new, and let us make some we the every day of old man.

Works

complete Works of Theophilus Volume I. ED. Mr. Alleaume. Kraus reprint, 1995.
complete Œuvres of Theophilus Volume II. ED. Mr. Alleaume. Kraus reprint, 1995.
After me to have made so much die , selected Works of Theophilus de Viau, published by Jean-Pierre Chauveau. Gallimard, collection Poetry, 2002.

Important works

Pyrame and Thisbé , tragedy of 5 acts in alexandrines
Treated immortality of the heart , free translation of the Phédon of Plato who alternates prose and towards
the House of Sylvie , continuation of ten odes in homage to its last guards
the Sonnets

Others

A quatrain full with spirit of Theophilus de Viau:

I return your book to you, Mélite

Though strong length, I very read it,

If you want that we are free,

Rends me time that I lost.

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