Antoine de La Fosse (alias ''

Sieur Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

d'Aubigny''; 1653 or 1658 – 2 November 1708) ', was a French playwright who wrote four tragedies, and was the last French author of tragedies to make a name for himself at the end of the 17th century. The son of a goldsmith and the nephew of painter

Charles de La Fosse Charles de La Fosse (or Lafosse; 15 June 1636 – 13 December 1716) was a French painter born in Paris. Life He was one of the most noted and least servile pupils of Le Brun, under whose direction he shared in the chief of the great decorativ ...

, Antoine served first as the secretary for the

Envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Bri ...

of France to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. La Fosse was then attached to Marquis Francois Joseph Créquy (1662–1702) who died in the

Battle of Luzzara The Battle of Luzzara took place in Lombardy on 15 August 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession, between a combined French and Savoyard army under Louis Joseph, duc de Vendôme, and an Imperial force under Prince Eugene. Conflict in ...

on 15 August 1702, before he became secretary for the 2nd Duke of Aumont Louis-Marie-Victor d'Aumont (1632–1704). La Fosse translated the

ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...

s of

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

to French (''Traduction nouvelle des odes d'Anacreon, sur l'original grec'') in 1704, and popular with contemporaries the second edition was published in 1706. German classicist (1701–1756) praised the French verse translation. La Fosse's ''

chef d'œuvre A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' ''Manlius Capitolinus'' (1698) about

Marcus Manlius Capitolinus Marcus Manlius Capitolinus (died 384 BC; sometimes spelled ''Manilius'') was consul of the Roman Republic in 392 BC. He was the brother of Aulus Manlius Capitolinus. The Manlii were a patrician ''gens''. Biography During the Gallic siege of ...

(died ), was imitated from the English dramatist

Thomas Otway Thomas Otway (3 March 165214 April 1685) was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for ''Venice Preserv'd'', or ''A Plot Discover'd'' (1682). Life Otway was born at Trotton near Midhurst, the parish of which his father, H ...

's play ''

Venice Preserv'd ''Venice Preserv'd'' is an English Restoration play written by Thomas Otway, and the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. It was first staged in 1682, with Thomas Betterton as Jaffeir and Elizabeth Barry as Belvidera. The ...

'', who in turn had taken his plot from

César Vichard de Saint-Réal César Vichard de Saint-Réal (1639–1692) was a French polyglot. He was born in Chambéry, Savoy, but educated in Lyon by the Jesuits. He used to work in the royal library with Antoine Varillas. This French historiographer influenced the way ...

's ''Conjuration des Espagnols contre la République de Venise en l'Année M. DC. XVIII'' (1674). La Fosse's later plays were not as successful, but according to theater historian

Phyllis Hartnoll Phyllis Hartnoll (22 September 1906, in Egypt – 8 January 1997, in Lyme Regis) was a British poet, author and editor. Hartnoll was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and read English at St Hugh's College, Oxford,Jack Readin"Obituary: Phy ...

in ''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre'', many of his contemporaries thought he might have rivalled

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

had he began his dramatic career earlier. His collected plays were popular for more than a century and were re-published multiple times in the 18th and 19th century, e.g. in two

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

volumes in 1747 (''Nouvelle edition'' - "new edition"), and in 1811 in two

octavo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

volumes. Among his other works of

elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

, odes,

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

s, and

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

s is an ode written in Italian, a language he became fluent in while in Florence, which earned him a membership of ''

Accademia degli Apatisti The Accademia degli Apatisti was a scholarly society founded in Florence in 1632 and associated with the Studio Fiorentino. Together with the Accademia degli Umidi and the Accademia della Crusca it was one of Florence’s dominant literary academ ...

''. La Fosse is interred in

St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais () is a Roman Catholic parish church located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, on Place Saint-Gervais in the Marais district, east of City Hall (Hôtel de Ville). The current church was built between 1494 and 1657, ...

, Paris.

Selected works

* *

Plays

* ''Polyxène'' (premiere February 3, 1686) * ''Manlius Capitolinus'' (premiere January 18, 1698) * ''Thesée'' (premiere 5 January 1700) * ''Corésus Callirhoé'' (premiere December 7, 1703)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafosse, Antoine de 1653 births 1708 deaths French translators Writers from Paris 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights 17th-century French poets 17th-century French male writers 18th-century French male writers 17th-century French translators 18th-century French translators