Nicolas de Montreux (c. 1561–1608) was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist. Born in

Sablé-sur-Sarthe Sablé-sur-Sarthe (, literally ''Sablé on Sarthe''), commonly referred to as Sablé, is a commune in the Sarthe department, in the Pays de la Loire region, western France. It is about 50 km northeast of Angers. Population Geography The ...

, in the

province of Maine The Province of Maine refers to any of the various English colonies established in the 17th century along the northeast coast of North America, within portions of the present-day U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the Canadian ...

, he was the son of a ''

maître des requêtes A Master of Requests () is a counsel of the French ''Conseil d'État'' (Council of State), a high-level judicial officer of administrative law in France. The office has existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages. The occupational title ...

'' and may have become a priest around 1585. In 1591 he came under the protection of the

Duke of Mercœur The Seigneurs and Dukes of Mercœur were a line of powerful lords deriving their name from the estate of Mercœur in Auvergne (province), Auvergne, France. The line became extinct in the 14th century, and passed by inheritance to the Dauphin of Auv ...

(he became his librarian) and participated in the

civil wars A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

on the side of the

Ligue The Catholic League of France (french: Ligue catholique), sometimes referred to by contemporary (and modern) Catholics as the Holy League (), was a major participant in the French Wars of Religion. The League, founded and led by Henry I, Duke o ...

, until he was imprisoned. Upon his release, he joined the court of

Henry IV of France 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 monarch ...

. Montreux signed many of his works with the anagram "Ollénix du Mont Sacré".

Works

Montreux's vast corpus spans theater, the novel, the pastoral, history, poetry and spiritual reflection and he shows a pronounced preoccupation with moral questions (such as

chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...

). With Béroalde de Verville, Montreux represents a literature of transition from the Valois court (and the generation of "

La Pléiade La Pléiade () was a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleiad ...

") to the Bourbon court of Henry IV and the baroque, and both of these authors attempted to compete with the translation of foreign masterpieces by the creation of original works in French. Montreux's first work was published at the age of 16 (a French adaptation from Italian of the 16th volume of Amadis of Gaul, 1577). His most famous work is an immense pastoral novel/play the ''Bergeries de Julliette'' in five volumes (1585–1598) (inspired by the ''Diane'' of

Jorge de Montemayor ( es, Jorge de Montemayor) (1520? – 26 February 1561) was a Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish. His most famous work is a pastoral prose romance, the ''Diana'' (1559). Biography He was born at Montemor- ...

and the pastoral works 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 ...

and

Tasso TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...

) which uses a prose frame in which is inserted short stories and short plays in verse. Montreux's work would be the most significant pastoral novel produced in France until ''

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 ...

'' by

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 T ...

. He wrote several long adventure novels which, like Bérolade de Verville's, were inspired by the Hispano-Portuguese chivalric adventure novel (like Amadis of Gaul) and the ancient Greek novel (like the works of

Heliodorus of Emesa Heliodorus Emesenus or Heliodorus of Emesa ( grc, Ἡλιόδωρος ὁ Ἐμεσηνός) is the author of the ancient Greek novel called the ''Aethiopica'' () or ''Theagenes and Chariclea'' (), which has been dated to the 220s or 370s AD. Ide ...

Achilles Tatius Achilles Tatius ( Greek: Ἀχιλλεὺς Τάτιος, ''Achilleus Tatios'') of Alexandria was a Roman-era Greek writer of the 2nd century AD whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel, or ''romance'', '' The Adv ...

): ''Les chastes et delectables Jardins d'Amour semez de divers discours et histoires amoureuses'' (1594), ''L’Œuvre de la Chasteté, qui se remarque par les diverses fortunes, adventures et fidelles Amours de Criniton et de Lydie'' in three volumes (1595-9) et ''Les Amours de Cleandre et Domiphille'' (1597). Montreux is responsible for several plays: four tragedies ''Tragédie du jeune Cyrus'' (drawn from

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...

, 1581), ''Isabelle'' (1594), ''Cléopâtre'' (1594), ''Sophonisbe'' (1601); two comedies ''La Joyeuse'' (drawn from

, 1581) and ''Joseph le Chaste''; 3 pastorals ''Athlette'' (1585), ''Diane'' (1592) ''Arimène ou le berger désespéré'' (1597). He also wrote religious poems, a history of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

from 1565 to 1606, and a long work of spiritual philosophy ''L'Homme et ses dignités'' (1599). Apart from his ''Bergeries de Juliette'', Nicolas de Montreux was largely forgotten by the end of the 17th century, yet he remains an important precursor to the baroque novel of the first half of the 17th century.

References

*Simonin, Michel, ed. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises - Le XVIe siècle.'' Paris: Fayard, 2001. {{DEFAULTSORT:Montreux, Nicolas de 1560s births 1608 deaths People from Sablé-sur-Sarthe 16th-century French poets 17th-century French poets 16th-century male writers 17th-century French male writers 16th-century French novelists 17th-century French novelists 16th-century French dramatists and playwrights 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights Baroque writers