Vincent Voiture (24 February 1597 – 26 May 1648), French poet and writer of prose, was the son of a rich wine merchant of

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

. He was introduced by a schoolfellow, the count

Claude d'Avaux Claude de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux (1595–1650) was a 17th-century French diplomat and public administrator. He was sent in various missions to Venice, Rome, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Poland by Richelieu. In 1635 he guided the negotiations ...

, to

Gaston, Duke of Orléans '' Monsieur'' Gaston, Duke of Orléans (Gaston Jean Baptiste; 24 April 1608 – 2 February 1660), was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a '' Fils de France''. He lat ...

, and accompanied him to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...

on diplomatic missions. Although a follower of the Duke of Orléans, he won the favour of

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

, and was one of the earliest 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 ...

. He also received appointments and pensions from

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 crown ...

and

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 unti ...

. He published nothing in book form, but his verses and his prose letters (published after his death by his nephew) were the delight of the coteries, and were copied, handed about and admired more perhaps than the work of any contemporary. He had been early introduced by Chaudebonne to 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-T ...

'', where he became a close friend of

Julie d'Angennes Julie d'Angennes, Duchess of Montausier (1607 - 15 November 1671) was a French courtier. She served as royal governess of Louis, Grand Dauphin in 1661–1664, and '' Première dame d'honneur'' to the queen of France, Queen Marie Thérèse, from ...

, the daughter of Charles d'Angennes and Catherine de Vivonne, ''marquis'' and ''marquise de Rambouillet''. His ingenuity in providing amusement for the members of the circle ensured his popularity, which was never seriously threatened except by

Antoine Godeau Antoine Godeau (24 September 1605, in Dreux – 21 April 1672, in Vence) was a French bishop, poet and exegete. He is now known for his work of criticism ''Discours de la poésie chrétienne'' from 1633. Biography His verse-writing early won the ...

(nicknamed ''le Nain de Julie''), and this rivalry ceased when Richelieu appointed Godeau

bishop of Grasse The former French Catholic diocese of Grasse was founded in the 4th or 5th century as the diocese of Antibes. It was originally suffragan to the Archbishop of Aix, and then to the Archbishop of Embrun. The see moved from Antibes to Grasse in 1244. ...

.Jacques Lacombe & Charles Joseph Panckoucke, ''Encyclopediana, ou Dictionnaire encyclopédique des ana'', Hôtel de Thou, Rue des Poitevins, Paris, 1791, p. 492. Vincent Voiture as St

When at the desire of the duc de Montausier, nineteen poets contributed 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 ...

'', which was to decide the much-fêted Julie in favour of his suit, Voiture did not take part. The quarrel between the ''Uranistes'' and the ''Jobelins'' arose over the respective merits of a

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

of Voiture addressed to a certain ''Uranie'', and of another composed by

Isaac de Benserade Isaac de Benserade (; baptized 5 November 161310 October 1691) was a French poet. Born in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy, his family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 ''livres''. He began his liter ...

, till then unknown, on the subject of ''Job''. Another famous piece of his of the same kind, ''La Belle Matineuse'', is less exquisite, but still admirable, and Voiture stands in the highest rank of writers of ''

vers de société ''Vers de société'', a term for social or familiar poetry, which was originally borrowed from the French, came to rank as an English expression.Fennell, ''The Stamford Dictionary of Anglicised Words'' History In France The use of the phrase ...

''. His prose letters are full of lively wit, and, in some cases, as in the letter on Richelieu's policy (Letter LXXIV), show considerable political penetration. He ranks with Jean de Balzac as the chief director of the reform in French prose which accompanied that of

Malherbe Malherbe may refer to: People * Malherbe (surname) ** François de Malherbe (1555-1628), French poet, reformer of French language Places France * La Haye-Malherbe, municipality of Eure (département), Eure * Malherbe-sur-Ajon, new municipal ...

in French verse. Voiture's death, on 26 May 1648, at the outbreak of the

Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...

, marked the beginning of the end of the society to which he was accustomed.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Voiture, Vincent 1597 births 1648 deaths People from Amiens Members of the Académie Française French poets 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French poets French male poets