Claude Billard (

Souvigny Souvigny () is a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. Today the main town of a canton of the Allier department, Souvigny has long been one of the major towns in the Bourbonnais (of which it was once the ca ...

, 1550 –

Courgenay Courgenay () is a municipality in the district of Porrentruy in the canton of Jura in Switzerland. History Courgenay is first mentioned in 1139 as ''Corgennart''. Geography Courgenay has an area of . Of this area, or 48.3% is used for agri ...

, 1618) was a French writer, poet and playwright of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Biography

Raised by the Duchess of Retz, whom he would name "generous Dictynne"One of Diana's nickname in his verse, he was first a soldier and fought alongside the Catholics during the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

. He wrote a lament on the death of the

Duke of Joyeuse The Viscounty of Joyeuse was elevated to a Duchy in 1581 by King Henry III of France for his favourite Anne de Joyeuse. House of Joyeuse *1581-1587 : Anne de Joyeuse (1560 † 1587), son of Guillaume de Joyeuse and Marie de Batarnay. *1587-1592 : ...

in 1587 and from 1588 would publish verse, acknowledging his masters were Jodelle,

Robert Garnier Robert Garnier (1544 – 20 September 1590) was a French poet and dramatist. He published his first work while still a law-student at Toulouse, where he won a prize (1565) in the Académie des Jeux Floraux. It was a collection of lyrical pi ...

and

Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of C ...

. He became advisor then secretary to Queen

Margaret of Valois Margaret of Valois (french: Marguerite, 14 May 1553 – 27 March 1615), popularly known as La Reine Margot, was a French princess of the Valois dynasty who became Queen of Navarre by marriage to Henry III of Navarre and then also Queen of France a ...

. He then turned to theater and was one of the first to take his subjects from the history of France. He brought together seven tragedies in a collection published in 1610. That same year, the assassination of

Henri IV Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

provided him the theme for a play which was presented before the Queen

Marie de' Medici Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingdom ...

. He ended his life in his retirement at Courgenay.

Works

*1587: ''Vers funèbres françois et latins sur le vrai discours de la mort de M. le duc de Joyeuse'', 1587 *1605: ''Voyage de la reine Marguerite en sa maison de Bologne'' *1607: ''Polixène'' *1607: ''Gaston de Foix'' *1607: ''Mérovée'' *1608: ''Panthée'' *1608: ''Saül'' *1609: ''Alboin'' *1609: ''Genèvre'' (These seven tragedies were gathered in a collection entitled ''Tragédies françoises'', D. Langlois, 1610) *1610: ''Henri le Grand''

Recent edition

''Genevre'', a cura di Giovanna Melis, Cagliari, Università degli studi di Cagliari, Istituto di lingue e letterature straniere, 1983

Bibliography

* Lancaster Eugene Dabney, ''Claude Billard : Minor French Dramatist of the Seventeenth Century'', Johns Hopkins Studies in Romance Literature and Languages, vol. 19, Baltimore, 1931 * Eugène Rigal, ''Le Théâtre français avant la période classique'', Hachette, 1901 * François et Claude Parfaict, Pierre-Gilles Le Mercier, ''Histoire du théâtre françois depuis son origine jusqu'à présent'', t. IV, 1745

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billard, Claude 16th-century French poets 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights 17th-century French male writers 1550 births 1618 deaths