François Maynard

François Maynard (born November 21, 1582 in Toulouse , † December 28, 1646 in Aurillac ) was a French writer and poet of the early classical period.

life and work

Maynard studied law and became a lawyer in 1603. From 1605 to 1607 he belonged to the circle of poets and intellectuals around the patroness Margaret of Valois , who had returned to Paris and who continued to appreciate the style of Ronsard . In 1607 Maynard went over to François de Malherbe , the rider of the French classical music and critic of Ronsard, which meant the break with Margarete. Maynard, together with Honorat de Racan , became Malherbe's best pupil, but did not make good progress in his social position. He married in 1611 and with the bride's money bought the office of court president in Aurillac , which he held honorably until 1628. An office as embassy secretary in Rome (1635–1636) with François de Noailles Count Ayen (1584–1645) ended in a rift. In 1640, Maynard finally retired to the provincial exile on his estates in Saint-Céré , following the example of Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654), whom he visited in 1643, and not unlike Racan. But since he was appointed to the Council of State and ennobled in 1644, he frequented Paris and at court again shortly before his death.

Maynard was a founding member of the Académie française in 1635 . Maynard has been largely upgraded by criticism in recent times. He is seen as an early instructor of the classical style, who did the same thing for poetry as Guez de Balzac did for prose. Castex / Surer call him a "great poet".

The Association des amis de Maynard in Saint-Céré has published the Cahiers Maynard since 1971 . The historic Hôtel du Président-Maynard still stands in Aurillac . There is also a rue François Maynard there . Rue Maynard has also been named after him in Toulouse since 1910 .

Famous verses

Verses like these are famous:

• Mon âme, il faut partir; ma vigueur est passée. / Mon dernier jour est dessus l'horizon .

• Je touche de mon pied le bord de l'autre monde, / L'âge m'ôte le goût, la force et le sommeil .

• Je suis las d'encenser l'autel de la fortune, / Et brûle de revoir mes rochers et mes bois, / Où tout me satisfait, où rien ne m'importune .

• Las d'espérer et de me plaindre / Des muses, des grands et du sort, / C'est ici que j'attends la mort / Sans la désirer ni la craindre .

Works

• Philandre , Tournon, Michel, 1619 ( Shepherd's game ).
• Les oeuvres de Maynard , Paris, Courbé, 1646 (preface by Marin Le Roy de Gomberville ).
• Oeuvres poétiques , ed. by Gaston Garrisson, 3 vols., Paris, Lemerre, 1885–1888; Geneva, Slatkine, 1970.
• Oeuvres poétiques choisies , Paris, Sansot, 1909.
• Odes et sonnets , ed. by Ferdinand Gohin , Paris, Garnier, 1925.
• Poésies. Recueil de 1646 et choix de divers autres recueils , ed. by Ferdinand Gohin, Paris, Garnier, 1927.

literature

• Charles Drouhet (1879–1940), Le poète François Mainard (1583? - 1646). Etude critique d'histoire littéraire , Paris, H. Champion, 1909.
• Tableau chronologique des lettres du poète François Mainard accompagné de lettres inédites , ed. by Charles Drouhet, Paris, H. Champion 1909.
• Henri Bressac (1863–1932), La vie désabusée de François de Maynard, poète-académicien-magistrat , Paris, La Lampe d'Or, 1931.
• Maynard et son temps. Actes Center de recherches Idées, thèmes et formes, 1580-1660. Colloque 1973 ; Université de Toulouse-Le-Mirail, Toulouse, Association des publications de l'Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 1976.
• François de Maynard. Poète toulousain 1582-1646 , Toulouse, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 1982.
• Les Lettres du président Maynard , ed. by Jean-Pierre Lassalle, 2 vols., Toulouse, Univ. de Toulouse-Le-Mirail, 1984.
• Najid Abdellatif, Etude sémantique du lexique de la poésie de François Maynard (recueil de 1646) , Diss., University of Toulouse 2, 1991; Association des Amis de Maynard, 1993.

Manual and lexicon information

• Pierre-Georges Castex and Paul Surer , Manuel des études littéraires françaises , Paris, Hachette, 1954, pp. 186, 189–190.
• André Lagarde and Laurent Michard , XVIIe siècle. Les grands auteurs français. Anthologie et histoire littéraire , Paris, Bordas, 1985 (first 1951), pp. 27–30 (“art impeccable”).
• Jean-Charles Payen and Jean-Pierre Chauveau , La poésie des origines à 1715 , Paris, Armand Colin, 1968, pp. 133-134, 168-169 and 424-427.
• Robert Sabatier, La Poésie du XVIe siècle , Paris, Albin Michel, 1975, pp. 27-34.
• Alain Viala, "François Mainard ou Maynard", in: Dictionnaire des écrivains de langue française , ed. by Jean-Pierre Beaumarchais, Daniel Couty and Alain Rey, Paris, Larousse, 2001, pp. 1063-1064.

Web links

• Literature by and about François Maynard in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)