(1613-11-05)5 November 1613 Lyons-la-Forêt, Kingdom of France
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10 October 1691(1691-10-10) (aged 77)
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Isaac de Benserade (French:[bɛ̃.sʁad]; baptized 5 November 1613 – 10 October 1691) was a French poet and playwright.
Born in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy, his family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres. On Richelieu's death, Benserade lost his pension but became more and more a favourite at court, especially with Anne of Austria.[1]
He wrote his first tragedy at the age of 23 in 1636, Cleopatra, for the actress Mademoiselle Bellerose. His first comedy was Iphis and Iante, which first opened in the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1634. This play touches on female homosexuality in the form of cross-dressing, which was a commonplace in French literature in the 17th century.[2]
Benserade provided the words for the court ballets and was in 1674 admitted to the French Academy, where he wielded considerable influence. In 1675, he provided the quatrains to accompany the 39 hydraulic sculpture groups depicting Aesop's fables in the labyrinth of Versailles. In 1676, the failure of his Métamorphoses d'Ovide in the form of rondeaux gave a blow to his reputation but by no means destroyed his vogue with his contemporaries. Benserade may be best known for his sonnet on Job (1651). The sonnet, which he sent to a young lady with his paraphrase on Job, was placed in competition with the Urania of Voiture and led to a dispute on their relative merits that long divided the whole court and the wits into two parties, styled respectively the Jobelins and the Uranists. The partisans of Benserade were headed by the prince de Conti and Mlle de Scudéry, and Mme de Montausier and Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac took the side of Voiture.[1]
Some years before his death, Benserade retired to Gentilly and devoted himself to a translation of the Psalms, which he nearly completed.[1]
^ abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Benserade, Isaac de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 744.
^Legault, Marianne (2007). "Iphis & Iante : traumatisme de l'incomplétude lesbienne au Grand Siècle". Dalhousie French Studies. 81: 83–93. ISSN 0711-8813. JSTOR 40837889.
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IsaacdeBenserade (French: [bɛ̃.sʁad]; baptized 5 November 1613 – 10 October 1691) was a French poet and playwright. Born in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy...
simply as the Ballet de la Nuit, is a ballet de cour with a libretto by IsaacdeBenserade and music by Jean de Cambefort, Jean-Baptiste Boësset, Michel Lambert...
poet IsaacdeBenserade next to each fountain. A detailed description of the labyrinth, its fables and sculptures is given in Perrault's Labyrinte de Versailles...
quatrain written by the poet IsaacdeBenserade next to each fountain. Perrault produced the guidebook for the labyrinth, Labyrinte de Versailles, printed at...
original theatre that burned down in 1672. unknown dates The poet IsaacdeBenserade is elected to the French Academy, along with the churchman and scholar...
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court dances. He worked alongside poet IsaacdeBenserade, as well as designers Torelli, Vigarani and Henry de Gissey, which made fashion and dance closely...
labyrinth of Versailles in 1669. These were accompanied by quatrains by IsaacdeBenserade, which subsequently appeared in Les fables d'Ésope, mises en françois...
were associated at Versaille with the quatrains composed for them by IsaacdeBenserade, who refers to the villain of the piece as a porcupine: The snake...
Voiture addressed to a certain Uranie, and of another composed by IsaacdeBenserade, till then unknown, on the subject of Job. Another famous piece of...
tragic roles. IsaacdeBenserade wrote the tragedy Cléopâtre for her in 1635. Henry Lyonnet, Dictionnaire des comédiens français, Bibliothèque de la revue...
The Greek origin of the fable was not lost sight of in France and IsaacdeBenserade included L'aigle percé d'une flèche in his collection of Aesop's fables...
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