Philippe Desportes or Desports (1546 – 5 October 1606) was a French

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 writte ...

.Jean Balsamo. Philippe Desports (1546-1606) Volume 62 of Actes et colloques. Editor, Contributor, Jean Balsamo. Publisher, Klincksieck, 2000

Biography

Philippe Desportes was born in

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

. While serving as secretary to the

Bishop of Le Puy The Roman Catholic Diocese of Le Puy-en-Velay (Latin: ''Dioecesis Aniciensis''; French: ''Diocèse du Puy-en-Velay'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the whole Department of Haute-Lo ...

he visited

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where he learned Italian poetry. This experience became a good account. On his return to France he attached himself to the duke of Anjou, and followed him to Cracow on his election as

king of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...

. Nine months in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

satisfied the civilized Desportes, but in 1574 his patron became king of France as Henry III. He showered favours on the poet, who received, in reward for the skill with which he wrote

occasional poems Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work ...

at the royal request, the abbey of Tiron and four other valuable benefices. A good example of the light and dainty verse in which Desportes excelled is furnished by the well-known ''villanelle'' with the refrain "Qui premier s'en repentira", which was on the lips of Henry, duke of Guise, just before his death. Desportes was above all an imitator. He imitated

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

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 tha ...

, and still more closely the minor Italian poets, and in 1604 a number of his

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

s were exposed in the ''Rencontres des Muses de France et d'Italie''. As 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, ...

eer he showed much grace and sweetness, and English poets borrowed freely from him. In his old age Desportes acknowledged his ecclesiastical preferment by a translation of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

remembered chiefly for the brutal ''mot'' 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 ...

: "Votre potage vaut mieux que vos psaumes." He published in 1573 an edition of his works including ''Diane'', ''Les Amours d'Hippolyte'', ''Elegies'', ''Bergeries'', ''Œuvres chrêtiennes'', etc. An edition of his ''Œuvres'', by

Alfred Michiels Joseph Alfred Xavier Michiels (December 25, 1813 - October 28, 1892) was a French historian and writer on art and literature. Biography He was born in Rome of Dutch- Burgundian parents. He began his law studies at Strassburg (1834), but made his h ...

, appeared in 1858.

Tributes

Chartres (28) Place des Halles - Nojhan - IMG 3497

* His hometown, Chartres, pays homage to the poet by attributing to him the name of one of his ways, the rue Philippe-Desportes, which connects the street of Marshal Leclerc and that of Dr. Maunoury. Place des Halles, a stele is also erected in honor of the Chartrain poets Philipe Desportes and his nephew Mathurin Régnier.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Desportes, Philippe 1546 births 1606 deaths Writers from Chartres French poets 16th-century French writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers Occasional poets