Jean de Rotrou

Home > People > Literature and the Arts > French Literature: Biographies

Rotrou, Jean de (1609–50). French dramatist, next to Corneille the most important of his day. He was only 19 when he had two plays produced at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, where he may have succeeded Hardy as official dramatist to the troupe. His popularity may be gauged from the fact that he had four plays produced in Paris in 1636. More than 30 of his works survive, some of them the best extant examples of the tragi-comedy of the time, though he was also instrumental with Mairet and Corneille in establishing neo-classical tragedy, of which his Hercule mourant (1634) is an early example. Rotrou, like Corneille, was interested in Spanish literature, and translated one of Lope de Vega's plays as La Bague de l'oubli (1629), the first extant French play to be based on a Spanish source and the first notable French comedy, as distinct from farce. He was also the author of one of the many versions of the story of Amphitryon, Les Sosies (1637), considered one of his best plays. Of his later works a tragedy, Cosroës (1649), remained in the repertory until the early 18th century, while Venceslas (1647), a tragedy based on a play by Rojas Zorrilla, was still being played up to 1857. In many ways the most appealing of Rotrou's later plays, and a masterpiece of baroque tragedy, is Le Véritable Saint-Genest (1645). Again based on a play by Lope de Vega, this portrays the conversion of the actor Genest while playing the part of the martyr St Adrian, with the result that he is himself taken away to suffer martyrdom. Rotrou, a man of great charm and nobility of character, held important municipal offices in his native town of Dreux, and died there during a plague, having refused to abandon his official post and seek shelter elsewhere.

Jean de Rotrou , 1609–50, French dramatist. One of the Cinq auteurs, five playwrights commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu, Rotrou wrote many plays, including the noble and effective tragedies Saint-Genest (1646) and Venceslas (1647). He was a friend and rival of Corneille.