Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

French writer and scholar

• Born: November 1, 1636
• Died: March 13, 1711

Boileau-Despréaux, a leading authority on neoclassical doctrine, wrote satire, epistles, dialogues, and literary criticism. His work became available in several languages and contributed to the rapid diffusion of French classical theory throughout Europe.

Early Life

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (nee-koh-lah bwah-loh-day-pray-oh) was the son of Gilles Boileau, a court clerk in the parlement of Paris. His mother, Anne de Niélé, died when he was eighteen months old. At the Collège de Beauvais, where he studied as an adolescent, he became familiar with the Greek and Latin classics, learned to write poetry, and received some training in theology. He also showed a keen interest in the writings of popular romance novelists such as La Calprenède and Madeleine de Scudéry, but he would later deride them as trivial authors.

Following some three and a half years of study at the Parisian Faculty of Law, he was admitted to the bar on December 4, 1656, but quickly abandoned the profession to follow his love of literature. An inheritance from his father, who died in February of the following year, offered him the financial freedom he desired. Soon, he began to attend literary circles, gaining valuable experience in matters of taste, and took to writing satire after the models of Juvenal and Horace. By the early 1660’s, a number of his manuscript satires were in the hands of friends and critics. After publication of the first edition of his Les Satires in 1666, which had been prompted by the arrival of a pirated edition earlier that year, Boileau-Despréaux rapidly gained recognition in the French capital and went on to become one of the nation’s leading social, moral, and literary critics.

Life’s Work

The first edition of Boileau-Despréaux’s Satires, preceded by a preface addressed to King Louis XIV of France, contained seven satires on various topics, ranging from life in the French capital to bad literature and boorish behavior. His criticism of Jean Chapelain’s epic poem, La Pucelle (1656; the maiden), notably in satires III and IV, sparked a series of indignant attacks on Boileau-Despréaux, to which the author quickly responded in verse and prose. Although a mediocre poet himself, Chapelain was one of the founders of the celebrated Académie Française and still had many followers in the capital willing to defend him.

Four additional satires were published during Boileau-Despréaux’s lifetime, including the delightfully pessimistic satire VIII “Sur l’homme” (1668; on man) and a controversial satire X “Contre les femmes” (1694; against women). Ultimately, Boileau-Despréaux would produce a corpus of twelve satires. Satire XII “Sur l’équivoque” (on ambiguity) was barred from publication for its derision of Jesuit casuistry, and so did not appear until the second authoritative edition of his collected works in 1716, five years after the poet’s death (Satires, 1711-1713).

By the end of the 1660’s, Boileau-Despréaux had acquired a reputation as an unrepentant satirist. Seeking both to follow in Horace’s footsteps and to reform his own public image, he diverted his attention momentarily from satire to other genres. Not surprisingly, therefore, his highly polemic L’Arrêt burlesque (burlesque injunction), directed against theologians at the Sorbonne, appeared anonymously in 1671. During a period covering some forty years, Boileau-Despréaux completed twelve épîtres (Épîtres , pb. 1670-1698; epistles), combining commonplace moral philosophy with praise of King Louis XIV’s military exploits as well as tenets of Jansenist theology, and with reflections on life in a bucolic setting. Modern critics have remarked, however, that scathing sarcasm and irony were so deeply entrenched in the Frenchman’s nature that he could hardly refrain from applying them in any genre.

Immediately following his introduction at court in January of 1674, Boileau-Despréaux received, along with the promise of a generous royal pension, a royal privilege authorizing publication of his long-awaited Œuvres diverses (1674; diverse works). His chief adversary, Chapelain, had used his influence to prevent the diffusion of Boileau-Despréaux’s works for more than two years, but he was nearing death and could no longer sustain his opposition. In addition to satires I-IX and épîtres I-IV, this volume contained Boileau-Despréaux’s important L’Art poétique (The Art of Poetry , 1683), tested and refined over the course of several years at public readings in the homes of influential members of the Parisian aristocracy. Also included were the first four cantos of his mock epic Le Lutrin (the lectern; partial English translation, 1682) and his French translation (Traité de sublime) of Longinus’s On the Sublime (first century c.e.), the first French translation of this work. From the latter, he derived his oft-discussed notion of the ineffable, “je ne sais quoi” (I know not what).

In recognition of his merit as an author and a critic, Boileau-Despréaux was appointed to the office of royal historiographer in 1677, alongside his friend Jean Racine, and was elected to membership in the prestigious Académie Française in 1684. One year later, in 1685, he became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Médailles (academy of inscriptions and medals) and purchased a house in nearby Auteil to escape the noise and commotion of the city. After 1690, he no longer appeared at Versailles but continued to attend meetings of the Académie Française and worked on his final satires and épîtres. He opposed fellow academic Charles Perrault in the so-called quarrel of the ancients and moderns, expressing admiration for the ancients in Réflexions critiques sur Longin (1694; critical reflections on Longinus).

In 1701, Boileau-Despréaux published the final edition of his Œuvres diverses, which included a new preface as well as satire IX, an “Ode sur les Anglais” (ode on the English), and various Latin translations of his writings. Translations of individual works appeared in several European languages during Boileau-Despréaux’s lifetime. A major cumulative translation into English, The Works of Monsieur Boileau, Made English by Several Hands , appeared in three separate volumes in 1711, 1712, and 1713. Two important editions of Boileau-Despréaux’s collected works appeared posthumously, one in 1713 and the other in 1716.

Significance

As a literary critic, Boileau-Despréaux formulated, perhaps better than any other of his generation, the basic precepts of neoclassical doctrine. In France, his Art poétique has been a convenient pedagogical guide used by generations of schoolchildren to acquire fundamental notions of traditional literary criticism, from the all-important Horatian precept of placere et docere (to please and to educate) down to the “rules” of verisimilitude and propriety as they relate to the individual genres. His work on Pseudo-Longinus, an author seldom read outside academic circles, introduced discussion of sublimity into French classical theory, fueling debate on the role of genius versus acquired skill in the process of artistic creation.

Translations of Boileau-Despréaux’s work became available in several languages and contributed to the rapid diffusion of French classical theory throughout Europe. In England, Art poétique and Le Lutrin had demonstrable influence on such authors as John Dryden , Joseph Addison, and Alexander Pope. Boileau-Despréaux was, however, also one of the leading satirists of his day. His poetry not only exposed humankind’s foibles but also pointed to the common virtues and values of French aristocracy during the reign of Louis XIV.

Bibliography

Brody, Jules. “Nicolas Boileau.” European Writers. Vol. 3 in The Age of Reason and Enlightenment: René Descartes to Montesquieu, edited by George Stade. New York: Scribner, 1984. An introduction to the author’s life and works, followed by detailed analysis of his ideas.

Colton, Robert E. Juvenal and Boileau: A Study of Literary Influence. New York: G. Olms, 1987. This study shows the extent of Juvenal’s influence on Boileau-Despréaux and how Boileau-Despréaux adapted his Roman model to seventeenth century France.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Studies of Classical Influence on Boileau and La Fontaine. New York: G. Olms, 1996. This collection contains nine essays examining the influence of various classical Latin authors in Boileau-Despréaux’s Satires and Épîtres.

Corum, Robert T., Jr. Reading Boileau: An Integrative Study of the Early Satires. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1998. A sequential analysis of Boileau-Despréaux’s Discours au roi and the first nine satires points to the poet’s persona as a unifying element.

Hardison, O. B., Jr., and Leon Golden. Horace for Students of Literature: The Ars Poetica and Its Tradition. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995. This English translation and commentary of major works in the history of literary criticism, from Horace to Wallace Stevens, includes a chapter on Boileau-Despréaux.

Pocock, Gordon. Boileau and the Nature of Neo-Classicism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. This introduction to neoclassical doctrine analyzes Boileau-Despréaux’s Satires, Épîtres, and Art poétique, and includes basic biographical information.

White, Julian Eugene, Jr. Nicolas Boileau. New York: Twayne, 1969. A standard English-language reference.

Wood, Alan G. Literary Satire and Theory: A Study of Horace, Boileau, and Pope. New York: Garland, 1985. This work examines the relationship between the poetic work and theory of three major satirists, including Boileau-Despréaux. Discussion centers on each poet’s persona.