Guillaume Colletet (12 March 1598 – 11 February 1659) was a French poet and a founder member 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 ...

. His son was François Colletet.

Biography

Colletet was born and died in Paris. He had a great reputation among his contemporaries and enjoyed the patronage of several important people, including

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 ...

, which whom he sometimes collaborated and who once gave him 600 livres for six verses. Colletet married, in succession, three female servants, one of whom, ''Claudine Le Nain'', he attempted to pass off as a poet in her own right, himself composing works which she then signed. When he realised he was dying, he produced a poem stating that she was giving up poetry following her husband's death; but no one was fooled.

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

wrote an epigram on the subject.

Works

*'' Divertissements '' ; *poems (tragedies, pastorals, etc.), including '' le Banquet des Poètes '' (1646) ; *''

Epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

me '' (1653) ; *'' Histoire des poètes français ''. *Much-esteemed treatises on moral poetry, sonnets and eclogues, gathered under the title ''d'Art poétique'', 1658 *Translations, including of the ''Couches de la Vierge'' by

Jacopo Sannazaro Jacopo Sannazaro (; 28 July 1458 – 6 August 1530) was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples. He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic '' Arcadia'', a masterwork ...

and of works by Scévole de Sainte-Marthe.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colletet, Guillaume Writers from Paris 1598 births 1659 deaths 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French poets Members of the Académie Française 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links