Nicolas Rapin (1535 – 16 February 1608) was a
French Renaissance
The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...
, royal officer, translator, poet and
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Under Contemporary, 1930-196 ...
, known for being one of the authors of the
Satire Ménippée
The ''Satire Ménippée'' () or ''La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne'' was a political and satirical work in prose and verse that mercilessly parodied the Catholic League and Spanish pretensions during the Wars of Religion in ...
(1593/4) and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the
Holy League during the
Wars of Religion
A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...
.
Life
Born at
Fontenay-le-Comte
Fontenay-le-Comte (; Poitevin: ''Funtenaes'' or ''Fintenè'') is a commune and subprefecture in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region of Western France. In 2018, it had a population of 13,302, while its functional area had a po ...
,
Vendée
Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442. into a family of
"noblesse de robe", Rapin pursued legal studies, practiced law at the
parlement of Poitiers, and became "échevin" (municipal leader) and later mayor (1569–1570) of Fontenay-le Comte. At the start of the civil wars, he participated at the defense of Poitiers against the forces of
Gaspard de Coligny (1569) and survived the capture of Fontenay by the
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
s (1570). He later became vice-senechel of Fontenay and
Niort
Niort (; Poitevin: ''Niàu''; oc, Niòrt; la, Novioritum) is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department, western France. It is the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres.
The population of Niort is 58,707 (2017) and more than 177,000 people live in the ...
, and, in 1585, "lieutenant criminel" (both are officers of public justice) in the
Île-de-France
The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...
region. With the arrival of the Holy League to power in Paris, Rapin was stripped of his positions, but the favor of
Henry III of France brought him the important post of "prévôt" in the army. With Henry's assassination at the hands of a radical
Jesuit, Rapin rallied to the new king
Henry IV and attacked the League and the Jesuits in his writings. He retired from public life in 1605 and died in 1608 at
Poitiers, on the way to see friends in Paris.
Writings
Rapin's written works were intimately linked to his public life and the political situation of France, as well as the humanist sensibility of the age. Rapin was close to many writers of the period, including
Joseph Justus Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger (; 5 August 1540 – 21 January 1609) was a French Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish a ...
,
Jacques-Auguste de Thou,
Etienne Pasquier,
Jacques Gillot and
Agrippa d'Aubigné
Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné (, 8 February 155229 April 1630) was a French poet, soldier, propagandist and chronicler. His epic poem ''Les Tragiques'' (1616) is widely regarded as his masterpiece. In a book about his Catholic contemporary Jean de ...
.
His written works span the genres and forms of the period. He wrote French translations of
Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...
(Canto 28 of the
Orlando Furioso, 1572),
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
,
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
,
Martial,
Horace, 7
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
(''VII Psaumes Pénitentielles''), and of many Neo-Latin poets (
Michel de L'Hospital,
Grotius
Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright.
A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...
,
Théodore de Bèze
Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation ...
, Scaliger, Jacques-Auguste de Thou); he wrote Latin works as well. He contributed to the funeral poem anthologies (or "tombeaux") for
Pierre de 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 ...
,
Philippe Desportes, Claude Dupuy and others.
Rapin's poetry used the "vers mesuré" system of
Jean-Antoine de Baïf
Jean Antoine de Baïf (; 19 February 1532 – 19 September 1589) was a French poet and member of the '' Pléiade''.
Life
Jean Antoine de Baïf was born in Venice, the natural son of the scholar Lazare de Baïf, who was at that time French amb ...
(an attempt to write French poetry based on long and short syllables like ancient
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
or
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
), but modified the system to permit traditional French poetic elements (including rhyme). His love poetry is at times
anti-petrarchian and satirical (contribution to ''La Puce de Ma Dame des Roches''; ''La Douche''), and at times idealized and
Neoplatonic
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...
(''L'Amour philosophe''). He also wrote
eclogue
An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics.
Overview
The form of the word ''eclogue'' in contemporary English developed from Middle English , which came from Latin , wh ...
s praising the country life, as in Horace (''Les Plaisirs du gentilhomme champestre'', 1575 and ''Elegie Patorale pour un Adieu'', 1581-3),
epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
s on war (''Le Siège de Poitiers'') and
occasional verse
Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage.
Term
As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work ...
of consolation, victory and other matters. His satirical vein is most apparent in his contributions to the
Satire Ménippée
The ''Satire Ménippée'' () or ''La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne'' was a political and satirical work in prose and verse that mercilessly parodied the Catholic League and Spanish pretensions during the Wars of Religion in ...
(1593/1594) which railed against the Holy League.
Finally, his will and the 30 letters by Rapin that have survived are important documents of late-Renaissance humanism in France.
References
* Simonin, Michel, ed. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises - Le XVIe siècle.'' Paris: Fayard, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapin, Nicolas
1535 births
1608 deaths
People from Fontenay-le-Comte
French satirists
French male poets
French male non-fiction writers