Editing Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (section)

==Life and career==
Guez de Balzac was born at [[Angoulême]]. Originally thought to have been born in 1595, the date was revised in 1848 upon the discovery of a baptismal certificate dated June 1, 1597, although this is still controversial because his birth certificate contained several irregularities.<ref>Jean Jehasse ''Guez de Balzac et le Genie Romain 1597–1654'' p. 82, N34</ref><ref name=aa/>{{rp|31}} He was born in a well off [[bourgeois]] family, which also had acquired [[noble title]]s. In his youth, he studied at two [[Jesuit]] colleges in Angoulême and [[Poitiers]], where he learned Latin well, especially [[rhetoric]].<ref>Peter William Shoemaker, ''Powerful connections: the poetics of patronage in the age of Louis XIII'', University of Delaware Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-87413-993-7}}, p. 59</ref>

In 1612, he met [[Théophile de Viau]] when de Viau's troupe visited Angoulême, and fled from home with the troupe.<ref name=aa>{{in lang|fr}} Antoine Adam, ''Théophile de Viau et la libre pensée française en 1620'', Slatkine, 2008, {{ISBN|2-05-102067-1}}</ref>{{rp|29}}<ref>H. Stanley Schwarz, ''An Outline History of French Literature'', READ BOOKS, 2007, {{ISBN|1-4067-4309-7}} p. 43</ref> The two traveled together with the troupe for some time, but when the troupe arrived at [[Leiden]], they enrolled as students at the [[Leiden University|city's university]] in May 1615, although it's possible that they visited the university in 1613 as well.

His letters to his acquaintances and to important courtiers gained him a great reputation. Compliments were showered on him, and he became an ''habitué'' of the [[Hotel de Rambouillet]]. In 1624 a collection of his ''Lettres'' was published, and was received with great favour. From [[Chateau de Balzac]], where he had retired, he continued to correspond with [[Jean Chapelain]], [[Valentin Conrart]] and others.

In 1634 Balzac was elected to the {{lang|fr|[[Académie française]]|italic=no}}. He died at [[Angoulême]] twenty years later.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}

Guez de Balzac's fame rests chiefly upon the ''Lettres'', a second collection of which appeared in 1636. ''Recueil de nouvelles lettres'' was printed in the next year. His letters, though empty and affected in matter, show a real mastery of style, introducing a new clearness and precision into French [[prose]] and encouraging the development of the language on national lines by emphasizing its most idiomatic elements. Balzac has thus the credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to [[François de Malherbe]]'s in verse. In 1631 he published a [[eulogy]] of King [[Louis XIII of France]] entitled ''Le Prince''; in 1652 the ''Socrate chrétien'', and ''Aristippe ou de la Cour'' in 1658.

Since 1962, his name is given to the [[:fr:Lycée Guez-de-Balzac|Lycée Guez-de-Balzac]] in [[Angoulême]] ([[Charente]], [[France]]).