Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux , 1636-1711, French literary critic and poet. He was the spokesman of classicism , drawing his principles from his contemporaries, among them his friends Racine, Molière, and La Fontaine. His critical precepts are embodied in L'Art poétique (1674), a verse treatise; Le Lutrin (1683), a mock epic; 12 Satires (1st collected ed. 1716) and 12 Épîtres (1st collected ed. 1701), after Horace; and Les Héros de roman (1688), a dialogue in literary criticism. Revered in the 18th cent. as a literary lawgiver, he was later detested by the romantics. Boileau's poetic reputation rests on his satires, especially Le Lutrin, on the clerical world; Satires III and VI, on life in Paris; and Satire X, on women. He was a zealous polemicist, notably in quarrels with Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin and Perrault.

Bibliography: See edition of Les Héros de roman by T. F. Crane (1902); study by G. Pocock (1980).

Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas (1636–1711), French critic whose writings brought a new and invigorating atmosphere into the literary debates of Paris and exercised a great influence on French literature and drama. He was not a poet but a good writer of verse. Though without imagination or warmth he had plenty of common sense and an uncanny flair for the best in art. He was the friend of many great writers of his time, including Racine—whom he taught to write verse—and especially Molière, whose satirical genius complemented his own.