(1613-04-01)1 April 1613 Saint-Denis-le-Guast, near
Coutances, in Normandy, France
Died
9 September 1703(1703-09-09) (aged 90) London, England
Occupation
Essayist, critic, soldier
Nationality
French
Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond (1 April 1613 – 9 September 1703) was a French soldier,
hedonist, essayist and literary critic. After 1661, he lived in exile, mainly in England, as a consequence of his attack on French policy at the time of the
Peace of the Pyrenees (1659). He is buried in
Poets' Corner,
Westminster Abbey. He wrote for his friends and did not intend his work to be published, although a few of his pieces were leaked in his lifetime. The first full collection of his works was published in London in 1705, after his death.
Life
He was born at Saint-Denis-le-Guast, near
Coutances, the seat of his family in
Normandy. He was a pupil of the
Jesuits at the
College de Clermont (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Paris; then a student at
Caen. For a time he studied law in Paris at the
College d'Harcourt (now Lycée Saint-Louis). He soon, however, took to arms, and in 1629 went with
Marshal Bassompierre to Italy. He served through a great part of the
Thirty Years' War, distinguishing himself at the siege of Landrecies (1637), when he was made captain. During his campaigns he studied the works of
Montaigne and the Spanish and Italian languages.[1]
In 1639 he met
Gassendi in Paris, and became one of his disciples. He was present at the battles of
Rocroi,
Nördlingen, and at Lerida. For a time he was personally attached to
Condé, but offended him by a satirical remark and was deprived of his command in the prince's guards in 1648. During
the Fronde, Saint-Évremond was a steady royalist. The
Duke of Candale, of whom Saint-Évremond has left a very severe portrait, gave him a command in
Guienne after he had reached the grade of maréchal de camp, and he is said to have pocketed 50,000
livres in less than three years from this office. He was one of the numerous victims involved in the fall of
Fouquet in 1661. His letter to
Marshal Créquy on the
Treaty of the Pyrenees, which is said to have been discovered by
Colbert's agents at the seizure of Fouquet's papers, seems a very inadequate cause for his disgrace.[1]
Saint-Évremond fled to the
Netherlands and to
England, where he was kindly received by
Charles II and was pensioned. After
James II's flight to France, Saint-Évremond was invited to return, but he declined.
Hortense Mancini, the most attractive of
Cardinal Mazarin's group of attractive nieces, came to England in 1670, and set up a
salon for flirtation, gambling, and witty conversation, and here Saint-Évremond was for many years at home. He died aged ninety on 9 September 1703[2] and was buried in
Westminster Abbey, where his monument is in
Poets' Corner, close to that of
Prior.[1]
Saint-Évremond never authorised the printing of any of his works during his lifetime, though Barbin in 1668 published an unauthorised collection but he empowered
Pierre des Maizeaux to publish his works after his death, and they were published in London (2 volumes, 1705), and often reprinted. His masterpiece in irony is the so-called Conversation du maréchal d'Hocquincourt avec le père Canaye (the latter a Jesuit and Saint-Évremond's master at school), which has been frequently classed with the Lettres provinciales.[1]
His Œuvres meslées, edited from the manuscripts by Silvestre and Maizeaux, were printed by Jacob Tonson (London, 1705, 2 volumes; 2nd edition, 3 volumes, 1709), with a notice by Maizeaux. His correspondence with
Ninon de l'Enclos, whose fast friend he was, was published in 1752; La Comédie des académistes, written in 1643, was printed in 1650. Modern editions of his works are by Hippeau (Paris, 1852), C. Giraud (Paris, 1865), and a selection (1881) with a notice by M. de Lescure.[1] Among his plays is one called Politick Would-be, modelled on a character from
Ben Jonson's Volpone.[citation needed]
Antoine Adam, Les libertins au XVIIe, Paris, Buchet/Chastel 1964
Patrick Andrivet, Saint-Évremond et l'histoire romaine, Orléans, Paradigme, 1998
ISBN2-86878-184-5
H.T. Barnwell, Les idées morales et critiques de Saint-Évremond : essai d'analyse explicative, Paris, PUF, 1957
Patrice Bouysse, Essai sur la jeunesse d'un moraliste : Saint-Évremond (1614–1661), Seattle, Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 1987
Gustave Cohen, Le séjour de Saint-Évremond en Hollande, Paris, Champion, 1926
Walter Daniels, Melville Saint-Évremond en Angleterre, Versailles, L. Luce, 1907
Soûad Guellouz, Entre baroque et lumières : Saint-Évremond (1614–1703) : colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (25–27 septembre 1998), Caen : Presses universitaires de Caen, 2000
ISBN2-84133-111-3
Suzanne Guellouz, Saint-Évremond au miroir du temps : actes du colloque du tricentenaire de sa mort, Caen – Saint-Lô (9-11 octobre 2003), Tübingen, Narr, 2005
ISBN3-8233-6115-5