Balthazar Baro (1596–1650) was a French poet, playwright and

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

-writer.

Biography

Baro was born in

Valence, Drôme Valence (, ; oc, Valença ) is a commune in southeastern France, the prefecture of the Drôme department and within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhône, about south of Lyon, along the railway line ...

, to a professor at the

university of Valence The University of Valence was founded 26 July 1452, by letters patent from the Dauphin Louis, afterwards Louis XI of France, in a move to develop the city of Valence, then part of his domain of Dauphiné. It existed until the French Revolution. ...

. He studied at

Tournon-sur-Rhône Tournon-sur-Rhône (; oc, Tornon) is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France. It is one of the most populous commune in the Ardèche department, after Annonay, Aubenas, and Guilherand-Granges. Geography It is located on the ...

then at Valence, where he gained his law doctorate in 1615, and became secretary to

Honoré d'Urfé Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (11 February 15681 June 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer. Life He was born at Marseille, the grandson of Claude d'Urfé, and was educated at the Collège de Tou ...

, whom he had met when they attended the same collège in Tournon, he published Urfé's ''

L'Astrée ''L'Astrée'' is a pastoral novel by Honoré d'Urfé, published between 1607 and 1627. Possibly the single most influential work of 17th-century French literature, ''L'Astrée'' has been called the "novel of novels", partly for its immense leng ...

'' and wrote a fifth book for it himself (from his master's notes) in 1628. Coming to Paris, he attended on Madame de Chevreuse, sworn enemy of

cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

, but even so the immense success of ''L'Astrée'' gained him entry to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

in 1636. After being gentleman to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, he held two jobs towards the end of his life, that of procurer to the présidial de Valence and that of treasurer of France at

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

. He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Works

Baro's œuvre is made up of four dramatic poems, three tragedies, two odes, a pastoral and a heroic poem. That heroic poem *''L'Astrée de Messire Honoré d'Urfé'' (1618–28) (5 volumes) - Its end, ''la Conclusion d'Astrée'', was called by

Paul Pellisson Paul Pellisson (30 October 1624 – 7 February 1693) was a French author. Pellisson was born in Béziers, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He studied law at Toulouse, and practised at the bar of Castres. Going to Paris with letters of intr ...

" aro'sgreatest and principal work ... in which he seems to have been inspired by his master's genius".Paul Pellisson, ''Histoire de l'Académie françoise'', volume I, p. 297 (1653). *''Célinde, poème héroïque'' (1629) - a five act prose work in the middle of which the author introduces a passage of around 300 lines of poetry evoking the tragedy of

Holofernes In the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, Holofernes ( grc, Ὀλοφέρνης; he, הולופרנס) was an invading Assyrian general known for having been beheaded by Judith, a Hebrew widow who entered his camp and beheaded him while he was ...

, which constituted the first

play within a play A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes c ...

in French literature *''La Clorise, pastorale'' (1632) *''Contre l'autheur d'un libelle, ode pour Monseigneur l'éminentissime cardinal duc de Richelieu'' (1637) *''La Parthénie, dédiée à Mademoiselle'' (1642) *''La Clarimonde, dédiée à la Reine'' (1643) *''Le Prince fugitif, poëme dramatique en cinq actes en vers'' (1649) *''Sainct Eustache martyr, poëme dramatique'' (1649) *''Cariste, ou les Charmes de la beauté, poëme dramatique'' (1651) *''Rosemonde, tragédie'' (1651) *''L'Amante vindicative, poëme dramatique'' (1652) In Act I scene I.1 of his ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

'',

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with t ...

evoked a production of Baro's ''La Clorise'' in order to mock it: :LE JEUNE HOMME (to his father) - What are we going to play ? :LE BOURGEOIS - ''Clorise''. :LE JEUNE HOMME - Who's it by? :LE BOURGEOIS - By monsieur Balthazar Baro. It's a play !

Bibliography

* André Blanc, ''Valence à travers les hommes'', Éditions SOREPI, Valence, 1975.

References

External links

Académie française

CÉSAR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baro 1596 births 1650 deaths People from Valence, Drôme 17th-century French poets 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights Members of the Académie Française 17th-century French novelists