Jean-Baptiste Louis Gresset

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Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Louis Gresset

Jean-Baptiste Louis Gresset (born August 29, 1709 in Amiens , † June 16, 1777 there ) was a French poet .

Life

Gresset completed his school days at a Jesuit school in his hometown. After the obligatory novitiate he joined the Jesuit order on September 3, 1726 . He was then sent to Paris to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and later for some time as a teacher in other schools of the order ( Moulins , Tours , Rouen ). In 1730 he made his successful debut with the ode "Sur l'amour de la patrie". He achieved his literary breakthrough in 1734 with "Vert-Vert", in which he elegantly and gracefully tells the story of a parrot that was raised in a nunnery and later got into bad company.

With this poem Gresset became known throughout the country overnight. Jean-Jacques Rousseau called Vert-Vert a "phénomene litteraire". His order was less understanding; after official disciplinary measures, Gresset was sent to the Collège Henri-IV de La Flèche (today in the Sarthe department ) in 1734 . The following year he was expelled from the order in October (without having been ordained a priest ). Gresset commented on his relegation with his poem Adieu aux jesuites .

He went to Paris and there turned more and more to the theater. Known in the salons as the protégé of Mme de Pompadour , he soon became the darling of society. On March 25, 1748, the Académie française appointed him to succeed the late Antoine Danchet ( Fauteuil 5 ). He was followed in 1777 by the cleric Claude-François-Xavier Millot in this place. As early as 1747 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences .

Gresset declined an invitation from Frederick the Great to come to Berlin. He got married and went back to his hometown. There he led a very secluded life. There he founded an Académie and became its président perpétuel . Voltaire commented on his withdrawn and modest life there with the epigram "Gresset se trompe - il n'est pas si coupable". Gresset only returned to Paris twice: when Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (1754) and Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard (1772) were accepted into the Académie française, Gresset each gave a much-praised speech.

Over time, Gresset changed from a libertine to a religious-conservative person. In 1759 he swore off his early literary work in an open letter and only accepted his later pieces. Gresset died before his 68th birthday on June 16, 1777 in his hometown, where he found his final resting place.

reception

Gresset was only able to repeat or even surpass his outstanding literary success with Vert-Vert with his play Le mechant . The literary critic Ferdinand Brunetière described this play as "... the best comedy of the 18th century" and placed it above Alexis Piron's Le métromanie . Charles Duclos classified this play in terms of quality between Le petit maître ( Pierre Carlet de Marivaux ) and Liaisons dangereuses ( Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos ).

Works (selection)

Poems
  • Adieu aux jesuites . 1735.
  • Le Carème Impromptu .
  • Le lutrin vivant .
  • Ode sur l'amour de la patrie . 1730.
  • Vert-Vert, ou les voyages du perroquet de Nevers . 1734.
Plays
  • La chartreuse . 1734.
  • Edouard III. Tragedy 1740.
  • Le Méchant . 1747.
  • Le parrain magnifique. Poème en dix chants . 1810 (published posthumously).
  • Sidney. Drama . 1745.
Translations
Work edition
  • François Joseph Fayolle (Ed.): Œuvres complètes . Dentu, Paris 1803 (3 vol.)
  • Antoine Augustin Renouard: Œuvres complètes . Paris 1811 (2 vol.)
  • Leopold Derome: Poésies choisies . Quantum, Paris 1883.

literature

  • Saint-Albain Berville: Gresset sa vie et ses ouvrages . Lenoël-Herouart, Paris 1863.
  • Louis-Nicolas de Cayrol: Essai historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Gresset . Presse de l'Académie, Amiens 1844.
  • Pierre-François Giroust: Eloge de Gresset, qui à concouru pour le prix proposé par l'académie d'Amiens . Bailly, Paris 1786.
  • Kurt Herrenschwand: Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset. His life and works . Dissertation, University, Zurich 1895.
  • Paul Mesnard: Histoire de l'académie française depuis sa fondation jusqu'en 1830 . Charpentier, Paris 1857.
  • Maximilien de Robespierre : Éloge de Gresset . New edition. Paris 1868.
  • Pedro G. Salazar: Le théâtre de Gresset. Reflet d'une époque . Dissertation, University of Paris 1977.
  • Jules Wogue: Jean-Baptiste Louis Gresset. Sa vie et ses œuvres . Lecène, Paris 1894.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Jean-Baptiste Louis de Gresset. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on March 31, 2015 .