Étienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin (; 1532July 1573), French dramatist and poet, was born and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

of a noble family. Member of La Pléiade, he will strive to revitalize the principles of ancient

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and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

theater during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. He was the first to introduce the

alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Ro ...

into

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

in his time, notably with '' Cléopâtre captive'', the first ''tragédie à l'antique'', as well as ''L'Eugène'' in comedy. He is recognized as a precursor of the theater which was born in the second half of the 16th century, a convulsive period by Wars of Religion which saw its uncertainties embodied in his work.. .

Biography

Jodelle belongs to the Parisian bourgeoisie, but he is attracted to the nobility. He is “Seigneur du Lymodin”. The premature death of her father when Jodelle was only four years old forced her mother, Marie Drouet, to take care of the education of her children, Étienne and his sister. Her maternal uncle, Étienne de Passavant, who owned a large collection of books, seems to have been the one who ignited Jodelle's taste for literature. He stayed in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

to 1550, then he settled in Paris where he became friends with Jean Antoine de Baïf, Nicolas Denisot and Remy Belleau. He belongs to the circle of the patron Jean II Brinon. Attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic composition. Jodelle aimed at creating a classical drama that should be in every respect different from the moralities and that then occupied the French stage, his first play, '' Cléopâtre captive'', was represented before the court at the hôtel de Reims in 1552. Jodelle himself took the title role, and the cast included his friends Remy Belleau and Jean Bastier de La Péruse, in honour of the play's success the friends organized a ceremony inspired by pagan rites called at Arcueil when a goat garlanded with flowers was led in procession and presented to the author. The ceremony was exaggerated by the enemies of the Ronsardists into a renewal of the pagan rites of the worship of

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

. Jodelle wrote two other plays. ''Eugène'', a comedy satirizing the superior clergy, had less success than it deserved. Its preface poured scorn on Jodelle's predecessors in comedy, but in reality his own methods are not so very different from theirs. ''Didon se sacrifiant'', a tragedy which follows

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's narrative, appears never to have been represented. Jodelle died in poverty in July 1573. His works were collected the year after his death by Charles de la Mothe. They include a quantity of miscellaneous verse dating chiefly from Jodelle's youth. The intrinsic value of his tragedies is small. ''Cléopâtre'' is lyric rather than dramatic. Throughout the five acts of the piece nothing actually happens. The death of Antony is announced by his ghost in the first act; the story of Cleopatra's suicide is related, but not represented, in the fifth. Each act is terminated by a chorus which moralizes on such subjects as the inconstancy of fortune and the judgments of heaven on human pride. But the play was the starting-point of French classical tragedy, and was soon followed by the ''Médée'' (1553) of Jean Bastier de La Péruse and the ''Aman'' (1561) of . Jodelle was a rapid worker, but idle and fond of dissipation. His friend Ronsard said that his published poems gave no adequate idea of his powers. While he was considered favorable to the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, he wrote the sonnets ''Contre les ministres de la nouvelle opinion''. He was later accused of having defended the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, notably by

Pierre de l'Estoile Pierre de L'Estoile (1546 – 8 October 1611) was a French diarist and collector. Life Born in Paris into a middle-class background, Pierre de l'Estoile was tutored by Mathieu Béroalde. He knew Agrippa d'Aubigné. He became a law student at Bou ...

. He may have been part of the literary circle of Maréchale de Retz. Jodelle received five hundred pounds from

Charles IX of France Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was List of French monarchs, King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II of France, Francis II in 1560, an ...

in 1572, but continued to fall into debt, and he died in poverty in July 1573, in a hovel on rue Champ-Fleury2. The Protestant poet

Agrippa d'Aubigné Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné (, 8 February 155229 April 1630) was a French poet, soldier, propagandist and chronicler. His Epic poetry, epic poem ''Les Tragiques'' (1616) is widely regarded as his masterpiece. In a book about his Catholic contemp ...

celebrated him in Funereal Verses. It was Charles de La Mothe who, after the poet's death, had his Œuvres et melanges poëtiques printed (Paris, N. Chesneau and M. Patisson, 1574). In modern times, the contribution of his work has gained importance, as a precursor of theater in the country but also in the development of what would later be called French classical theater. Jodelle's works are collected (1868) in the ''Pléiade française'' of Charles Marty-Laveaux. The prefatory notice gives full information of the sources of Jodelle's biography, and La Mothe's criticism is reprinted in its entirety.

Plays and posterity

His works exerted a strong influence on the subsequent development of various genres of dramaturgy which continued long after him. * ''L'Eugène'' (1553) * '' Cléopâtre captive'' (1553) * ''Didon se sacrifiant'' (1555) which takes up the material and a certain number of verses from '' The Aeneid'' by

(IV). * ''Poésies politiques'' (1572) * ''Les Amours et autres poésies'' Online
/small> ;Modern editions * ''Didon se sacrifiantf'', text edited and presented by Mariangela Miotti, ''Tragedy at the time of Henry II and Charles IX (1573–1575), 1st series'', vol . 5, Florence-Paris, Olschki-P.U.F., 1993, p. 359-430. * ''Complete works'', edited by E. Balmas, Paris, Gallimard, 1968 *''L'Amour obscure'', Poems chosen and presented by Robert Melançon, Paris, Orphée/La Différence, 1991 *''Didon se sacrifiant'', edited by J.-C. Ternaux, Paris, Champion, 2002 *''Cleopatre catpive'', edited and presented by Emmanuel Buron, ''Tragic theater of the 16th century'', Garnier Flammarion, 2020 *''Like one who got lost in the deep forest: sonnets''; edited by Agnes Rees; preface by Florence Delay, Gallimard, 2022, 225 p.

Tributes

* ''Pathelin, Cléopâtre, Arlequin. Le théâtre dans la France de la Renaissance'' at

Château d'Écouen The Château d'Écouen is an historic château in the commune of Écouen, some 20 km north of Paris, France, and a notable example of French Renaissance architecture. Since 1975, it has housed the collections of the Musée national de la Re ...

, exposition in collaboration with

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

and Musée national de la Renaissance, 22 November 2018. * The asteroid 317917-Jodelle was named in her honor.

References

External links

Short biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jodelle, Etienne 16th-century French dramatists and playwrights 16th-century French male writers 16th-century French poets 1532 births 1573 deaths Writers from Paris