Claude Malleville, born 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 ...

probably between 1594 and 1596 and died in the same city in 1647, was a French poet. He became one of the first members of 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 1634.

His life

Knowledge about Claude Malleville's life was for a long time reduced to the following notice by his contemporary

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 ...

: This succinct and partly erroneous notice must now be replaced by a work by Maurice Cauchie, published in 1923, and corrected on certain points by R. Ortali.

The works

In his youth, Malleville was a member of the cenacle of the '' :fr:Illustres Bergers'', a circle of Catholic ronsardian poets and scholars , in which he was identified with '' Damon''. A member of the circles of

Valentin Conrart Valentin Conrart (; 1603 – 23 September 1675) was a French author, and as a founder of the Académie française, the first occupant of seat 2. Biography He was born in Paris of Calvinist parents, and was educated for business. However, afte ...

and of

Marie de Gournay Marie de Gournay (; 6 October 1565, Paris – 13 July 1645) was a French writer, who wrote a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including ''The Equality of Men and Women'' (''Égalité des hommes et des femmes'', 1622) and ' ...

, a regular at the

Hôtel de Rambouillet The Hôtel de Rambouillet, formerly the Hôtel de Pisani, was the Paris residence of Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, who ran a renowned literary salon there from 1620 until 1648. It was situated on the west side of the rue Saint-Th ...

, Malleville contributed a dozen poems to the ''

Guirlande de Julie The ''Guirlande de Julie'' (, ''Julie's Garland'') is a unique French manuscript of sixty-one ''madrigaux'', illustrated with painted flowers, and composed by several poets ''habitués'' of the Hôtel de Rambouillet for Julie d'Angennes and giv ...

''. His most famous sonnet, ''La Belle Matineuse'', was composed on the occasion of a poetic joust with

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on a theme that goes back to the Latin poet

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and was taken up successively by

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, Joachim du Bellay,

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and

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.History of the question in Émile Faguet, ''Histoire de la poésie française de la Renaissance au Romantisme'', vol. III, pp. 206-211. Like other French poets of the time, he wrote sonnets on the themes of La Belle More, La Belle Gueuse and La Belle Baigneuse, borrowed from

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. The name of Malleville has long been known to the general educated public only by this appreciation of

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: "A sonnet without faults alone is worth a long poem. / But in vain a thousand authors think they can do it; / And that happy phoenix is yet to be found. / Barely in Gombaut, Maynard and Malleville, / Can you admire two or three out of a thousand. » In addition to his sonnets imitated from the Italian mentioned above (and of which he also treats certain themes in ''Stances''), praised poems of Malleville are his elegy on the death of the Princess of Conti, lover of Bassompierre and perhaps secretly married to him, his paraphrase of Psalm XXX ''Exaltabo Te Domine'' and a heroic priapaea on the famous Ethiopian

Zaga Christ Zaga Christ ( – April 22, 1638), also referred to as Ṣägga Krəstos, Atənatewos, and Lessana Krəstos, was a seventeenth-century Ethiopian man who, after having been imprisoned, claimed to be the son of Emperor Yaˁəqob I of Ethiopia. Zag ...

, which, according to several critics,Notably Faguet and Cauchie, quoted by R. Ortali, ''Œuvres poétiques'' by Claude Malleville, Paris, 1976, t. 2, p. 553-554. is his masterpiece.

Publications

*''L'Almerinde'' (1646) and ''La Stratonice'' (1649). Translated from the Italian of Luca Assarino by Pierre d'Audiguier le jeune et Claude de Malleville. *''Poésies du sieur de Malleville'' (1649)
online
*''Diverses poésies de l'Académie. Divers sonnets, stances, élégies, chansons, madrigaux, épigrammes & rondeaux'' (1664)
online
*''Mémoires du maréchal de Bassompierre, contenans l'histoire de sa vie'' (4 volumes, 1723). *''Œuvres poétiques'', critical edition by Raymond Ortali, Didier, Paris, 1976.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malleville 17th-century French writers 17th-century French poets Members of the Académie Française 1647 deaths Deaths in Paris