Philippe Néricault Destouches
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Philippe Néricault Destouches (9 April 1680 – 4 July 1754) was a French
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...
who wrote 22 plays.


Biography

Destouches was born at
Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
, in today's department of
Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.abbé ''Abbé'' (from Latin , in turn from Greek , , from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is also the title used for lower-ranki ...
Dubois. He later contracted a marriage with Dorothea Johnston,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
lady ''Lady'' is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. "Lady" is al ...
; however, the marriage was not avowed for some years. In 1727 he portrayed his domestic circumstances in ''Le Philosophe Marié'' (The Married Philosopher). Upon returning to France in 1723, he was elected to the
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
. In 1727 he acquired considerable estates, the possession of which conferred the privileges of nobility. He spent his later years at Fortoiseau, his chateau near
Melun Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the centre of the capital. Melun is the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne, ...
, and died July 4, 1754. Destouches wished to revive the comedy of character as understood by
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 great writers in the French language and world liter ...
, but he thought it desirable that the moral should be directly expressed. His early comedies were: *''Le Curieux Impertinent'' (1710) *''L'Ingrat'' (1712) *''L'Irrésolu'' (1713) *''Le Médisant'' (1715) *''La Fausse Veuve'' (1715) *''Le Triple Mariage'' (1716) *''L'Obstacle Imprévu'' (1717) The most highly regarded of these is ''L'Irrésolu'' (The Irresolute Man), in which Dorante, after vacillating throughout the play between Julie and Climène, marries Julie, but concludes the play with the reflection, "J'aurais mieux fait, je crois, d'épouser Climène" ("I would have done better, I think, to marry Climène"). After eleven years of diplomatic service, Destouches returned to the stage in 1727 with ''Le Philosophe Marié'', followed in 1730 by ''Les Philosophes Amoureux'' and in 1732 by ''Le Glorieux'', a picture of the struggle then beginning between the old nobility and the wealthy parvenus who found opportunity in the poverty of France. He then wrote: *''La Pupille'' (1734) *''L'Ambitieux et l'Indiscrète'' (1737) *''Les Dehor Trompeurs'' (1740) *''La Belle Orgueilleuse'' (1741) *''L'Amour Use'' (1741) *''Les Amours de Ragonde'' (1742) His later comedies were: *''La Force du Naturel'' (1750) *''Le Jeune Homme á l'Épreuve'' (1751) *''Le Dissipateur'' (1753) His last three plays were produced posthumously. They were: *''La Fausse Agnès'' (1759) *''Le Tambour Nocturne'' (1762) *''L'Homme Singulier'' (1764, his last play)


Memorable phrase

Destouches's 1717 dramatic comedy ''L'Obstacle Imprévu'' (Act I, sc. vi) was the origin of the oft-quoted maxim, “The absent are always in the wrong.” Bergen Evans, in his ''Dictionary of Quotations'', said:
“Though Néricault ... is credited with the first statement of this thought in this form, the idea is old and, in other forms, universal.”
In "le Glorieux" he wrote "To critic is easy, only the art is difficult".


References

*


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nericault Destouches, Philippe Writers from Tours, France 1680 births 1754 deaths 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights 18th-century French male actors French male stage actors Members of the Académie Française 18th-century French male writers