Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
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Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (; 1 November 1636 – 13 March 1711), often known simply as Boileau (, ), was a
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...
and
critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...
. He did much to reform the prevailing form of French poetry, in the same way that
Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest ...
did to reform the prose. He was greatly influenced by
Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
.


Family and education

Boileau was the fifteenth child of Gilles Boileau, a clerk in the Parliament of Paris. Two of his brothers attained some distinction:
Gilles Boileau Gilles Boileau (22 October 1631, Paris – 18 March 1669), the elder brother of the more famous Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, was a French translator and member of the Académie française. Boileau was well regarded as a classicist by his contem ...
, the author of a translation of
Epictetus Epictetus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκτητος, ''Epíktētos''; 50 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present-day Pamukkale, in western Turkey) and lived in Rome until his banishment, when ...
; and
Jacques Boileau Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are ove ...
, who became a canon of the
Sainte-Chapelle The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France. ...
, and made valuable contributions to church history. The surname " Despréaux" was derived from a small property at Crosne near Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. His mother died when he was two years old; and Nicolas Boileau, who had a delicate constitution, seems to have suffered something from want of care.
Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he s ...
puts down his somewhat hard and unsympathetic outlook quite as much to the uninspiring circumstances of these days as to the general character of his time. He cannot be said to have been early disenchanted, for he never seems to have had any illusions; he grew up with a single passion, "the hatred of stupid books." He was educated at the Collège de Beauvais, and was then sent to study
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...
at the Sorbonne. He exchanged theology for law, however, and was called to the bar on December 4, 1656. From the profession of law, after a short trial, he recoiled in disgust, complaining bitterly of the amount of chicanery which passed under the name of law and justice. His father died in 1657, leaving him a small fortune, and thenceforward he devoted himself to letters.


1660s

Such of Boileau's early poems as have been preserved hardly contain the promise of what he ultimately became. The first piece in which his peculiar powers were displayed was the first satire (1660), in imitation of the third satire of
Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...
; it embodied the farewell of a poet to the city of Paris. This was quickly followed by eight others, and the number was at a later period increased to twelve. A twofold interest attaches to the satires. In the first place the author skilfully parodies and attacks writers who at the time were placed in the very first rank, such as
Jean Chapelain Jean Chapelain (4 December 1595 – 22 February 1674) was a French poet and critic during the Grand Siècle, best known for his role as an organizer and founding member of the Académie française. Chapelain acquired considerable prestige as a ...
, the abbé
Charles Cotin Charles Cotin or Abbé Cotin (1604 – December 1681) was a French abbé, philosopher and poet. He was made a member of the Académie française on 7 January 1655. Cotin was born and died in Paris. He was a scholar of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, an ...
, Philippe Quinault and
Georges de Scudéry Georges de Scudéry (22 August 1601 – 14 May 1667), the elder brother of Madeleine de Scudéry, was a French novelist, dramatist and poet. Life Georges de Scudéry was born in Le Havre, in Normandy, whither his father had moved from Provence. H ...
; he openly raised the standard of revolt against the older poets. But in the second place he showed both by precept and practice what were the poetical capabilities of the French language. Prose in the hands of such writers as
René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...
and
Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest ...
had proved itself a flexible and powerful instrument of expression, with a distinct mechanism and form. But except with Francois de Malherbe, there had been no attempt to fashion French versification according to rule or method. In Boileau for the first time appeared terseness and vigour of expression, with perfect regularity of verse structure. His admiration for
Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
found expression in the stanzas addressed to him (1663) and in the second satire (1664). In 1664 or 1665, he composed his prose ''Dialogue sur les héros de roman'', a satire on the elaborate romances of the time, which may be said to have once for all abolished the lucubrations of La Calprenède, Mlle de Scudéry and their fellows. Though fairly widely read in manuscript and also released in an unauthorized edition in 1668, the book was not published till 1713, out of regard, it is said, for Mlle de Scudéry. To these early days belong the reunions at the Mouton Blanc and the Pomme du Pin, where Boileau, Molière,
Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
,
Jean de La Chapelle Jean de La Chapelle (24 October 1651 – 29 May 1723) was a French writer and dramatist. He was born at Bourges, France, was elected to the Académie française in 1688, and died in Paris. Biography Born into minor nobility, nephew of Nicolas ...
and
Antoine Furetière Antoine Furetière (28 December 161914 May 1688) was a French scholar, writer, and lexicographer, known best for his satirical novel ''Scarron's City Romance''. He was expelled from the Académie Française for seeking to publish his own French ...
met to discuss literary questions. To Molière and Racine he proved a constant friend, and supported their interests on many occasions. In 1666, prompted by the publication of two unauthorized editions, he published ''Satires du Sieur D....'', containing seven satires and the Discours au roi. From 1669 onwards appeared his ''epistles'', graver in tone than the satires, maturer in thought, more exquisite and polished in style. The ''Épîtres'' gained for him the favour 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 ...
, who desired his presence at court. The king asked him which he thought his best verses. Whereupon Boileau diplomatically selected as his "least bad" some still unprinted lines in honour of the grand monarch and proceeded to recite them. He received forthwith a pension of 2000 livres.


1670s

In 1674 Boileau's ''L'Art poétique'' (in imitation of the '' Ars Poetica'' of
Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
) and ''Le Lutrin'' were published with some earlier works as the ''L'Œuvres diverses du sieur D...''. Boileau rules on the language of poetry, and analyses various kinds of verse composition. He influenced English literature through the translation of ''L'Art poétique'' by
Sir William Soame Sir William Soame, 1st Baronet (also Soames) (c.1645–1686) was an English translator and diplomat. Life The Soame family was based in East Anglia, and in the commercial world of London, where Stephen Soame had been Lord Mayor. Soame was his gre ...
and
John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
, and their imitation in
Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
's ''
Essay on Criticism ''An Essay on Criticism'' is one of the first major poems written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688–1744), published in 1711. It is the source of the famous quotations "To err is human; to forgive, divine", "A little learning is a da ...
''. Of the four books of ''L'Art poétique'', the first and last consist of general precepts, inculcating mainly the great rule of ''bon sens''; the second treats of the pastoral, the elegy, the ode, the epigram and satire; and the third of tragic and epic poetry. Though the rules laid down are of value, their tendency is rather to hamper and render too mechanical the efforts of poetry. Boileau himself, a great, though, by no means infallible critic in verse, cannot be considered a great poet. He rendered the utmost service in destroying the exaggerated reputations of the mediocrities of his time, but his judgment was sometimes at fault. The ''Lutrin'', a mock heroic poem, of which four cantos appeared in 1674, is sometimes said to have furnished Alexander Pope with a model for the
Rape of the Lock ''The Rape of the Lock'' is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope. One of the most commonly cited examples of high burlesque, it was first published anonymously in Lintot's ''Miscellaneous Poems and Translations'' (May 1712) ...
, but the English poem is superior in richness of imagination and subtlety of invention. The fifth and sixth cantos, afterwards added by Boileau, rather detract from the beauty of the poem; the last canto in particular is quite unworthy of his genius. In 1674 Boileau published his translation of
Longinus Longinus () is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal G ...
' ''On the Sublime'', making Longinus' ideas available to a wider audience, and influencing
Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_ NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style"> ...
's work on the same subject. In 1693 he added some critical reflections to the translation, chiefly directed against the theory of the superiority of the moderns over the ancients as advanced by
Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...
. Boileau was made historiographer to the king in 1677. From this time the amount of his production diminished. To this period of his life belong the satire, ''Sur les femmes'', the ode, ''Sur la prise de Namur'', the epistles, ''A mes vers'' and ''Sur l'amour de Dieu'', and the satire ''Sur l'homme''. The satires had raised up a crowd of enemies against Boileau. The 10th satire, on women, provoked an ''Apologie des femmes'' from Charles Perrault. Antoine Arnauld in the year of his death wrote a letter in defence of Boileau, but when at the desire of his friends he submitted his reply to Bossuet, the bishop pronounced all satire to be incompatible with the spirit of Christianity, and the 10th satire to be subversive of morality. The friends of
Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patristics. Contem ...
had declared that it was inconsistent with the dignity of a churchman to write on any subject so trivial as poetry. The epistle, ''Sur l'amour de Dieu'', was a triumphant vindication on the part of Boileau of the dignity of his art. It was not until April 15, 1684 that he was admitted to 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 ...
, and then only by the king's wish. In 1687 he retired to a country-house he had bought at
Auteuil Auteuil may refer to: Places * Auteuil, Oise, a commune in France * Auteuil, Paris, a neighborhood of Paris ** Auteuil, Seine, the former commune which was on the outskirts of Paris * Auteuil, Quebec, a former city that is now a district within ...
, which
Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
, because of the numerous guests, calls his ''hôtellerie d'Auteuil''.


1700–1711

In 1705 Boileau sold his house and returned to Paris, where he lived with his confessor in the
cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
s of Notre Dame. In the 12th satire, ''Sur l'équivoque'', he attacked the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
in verses which Sainte-Beuve called a recapitulation of the ''
Lettres provinciales The ''Lettres provinciales'' (''Provincial letters'') are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte. Written in the midst of the formulary controversy between t ...
'' of Pascal. This was written about 1705. He then gave his attention to the arrangement of a complete and definitive edition of his works. But the Jesuit fathers obtained from Louis XIV the withdrawal of the privilege already granted for the publication, and demanded the suppression of the 12th satire. These annoyances are said to have hastened his death, which took place on the 13th of March 1711. He was a man of warm and kindly feelings, honest, outspoken and benevolent. Many anecdotes are told of his frankness of speech at court, and of his generous actions. He holds a well-defined place in French literature, as the first who reduced its versification to rule, and taught the value of workmanship for its own sake. His influence on English literature, through Pope and his contemporaries, was not less strong, though less durable. After much undue depreciation, Boileau's critical work has been rehabilitated by recent writers, perhaps to the extent of some exaggeration in the other direction. It has been shown that in spite of undue harshness in individual cases most of his criticisms have been substantially adopted by his successors. Numerous editions of Boileau's works were published during his lifetime. The last of these, ''l'Œuvres diverses'' (1701), known as the "favourite" edition of the poet, was reprinted with variants and notes by Alphonse Pauly (2 vols., 1894). The critical text of his works was established by Berriat Saint-Prix, ''Œuvres de Boileau'' (4 vols., 1830–1837), who made use of some 350 editions. This text, edited with notes by Paul Chéron, with the ''Boloeana'' of 1740, and an essay by Sainte-Beuve, was reprinted by Garnier frères (1860).


See also

*
Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd ("Like a Shepherdess, festively dressed"), is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman from his 1790 collection, ''Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 80. The Epistle is subtitled "Angå ...
, a 1790 song by Carl Michael Bellman, closely following Boileau's guide to pastoral verse


References


Sources

* Sainte-Beuve, ''Causeries du lundi'', vol. vi.; F. Brunetière, "''L'Esthétique de Boileau''" (''
Revue des Deux Mondes The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...
'', June 1889), and an exhaustive article by the same critic in ''La Grande Encyclopédie'';
Gustave Lanson Gustave Lanson (5 August 1857 – 15 December 1934) was a French historian and literary critic. He taught at the Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. A dominant figure in French literary criticism, he influenced several gene ...
, ''Boileau'' (1892), in the series of ''Grands écrivains français''. * * * *


Further reading

* Doran, Robert. "Boileau" in ''The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. * ''Boileau's Works'', (in French) illustrated by Rémy Lejeune (Ladoré), edited by Pierre et Berthe Bricage (1961), in 5 volumes. *


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas 1636 births 1711 deaths Writers from Paris Lycée Saint-Louis alumni University of Paris alumni 17th-century French poets French literary critics 17th-century French male writers 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers Members of the Académie Française Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Burials at Saint-Germain-des-Prés (abbey) French male poets 17th-century journalists