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Jean Loret (ca 1600-1665) was a French writer and poet known for publishing the weekly news of
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. Si ...
ian society (including, initially, its pinnacle, the
court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...
of
Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
itself) from 1650 until 1665 in verse in what he called a ''
gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
''. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of journalism" as a result of his topical writings. In an 1868 review of the French press,
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
called Loret's journal "the smartest of them all" being published in the period following the death of
Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crow ...
, and noted that he was able to escape government censorship until 1652, after which the government forbade Loret from writing about matters of Church or State. The verses, which were in the forms of letters to Marie d'Orléans Longueville, were assembled and published in three volumes as ''La Muse historique'' (1650, 1660, 1665). The first volume is believed to contain the earliest written reference to the tales of
Mother Goose The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howeve ...
. He was the subject of a portrait by famed engraver Robert Nanteuil whose subjects were the figures of
Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
's court. Loret's patron was
Nicolas Fouquet Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (27 January 1615 – 23 March 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a glittering career, and acquired enormous wealth ...
and when Fouquet was arrested, Loret was one of several members of French society who came to his defence. After his death, several other writers continued the tradition of ''gazette burlesque'' until nearly the end of the century.


See also

*'' Den Danske Mercurius'', a Danish newspaper inspired by Loret


References


External links

* 1600s births 1665 deaths People from Carentan French poets 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers French journalists French male poets French male non-fiction writers 17th-century journalists {{France-writer-stub