Editing Jean Desmarets

{{short description|French writer and dramatist}}
[[Image:Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin.jpg|right|thumb|Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin.]]
{{French literature sidebar}}
'''Jean Desmarets, Sieur de Saint-Sorlin''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ demaʁɛ}}; 1595 – 28 October 1676) was a French writer and dramatist. He was a founding member, and the first to occupy seat 4 of the [[Académie française]] in 1634.

==Biography==
Born in [[Paris]], Desmarets was introduced to [[Cardinal Richelieu]], and became one of the band of writers who carried out the cardinal's literary ideas when he was about thirty years old. His inclination, however, was to writing novels, and the success of his romance ''L'Ariane'' in  1632 led to his formal admission to a circle of writers that met at the house of [[Valentin Conrart]]. When this circle later developed into the [[Académie française]], Desmarets became its first chancellor. He was related to [[Marie Dupré]].

His success led to official preferment, and he was made ''conseiller du roi'', ''contrôleur-général de l'extraordinaire des guerres'', and secretary-general of the fleet of the [[Levant]].

==Works==
It was at Richelieu's request that he began to write for the theatre. In this genre he produced a comedy long regarded as a masterpiece, ''Les Visionnaires'' (1637), where, slightly disguised, real personages such as Madeleine de Sablé, la marquise de Rambouillet et Madame de Chavigny are staged; a prose-tragedy, ''Erigone'' (1638); and ''Scipion'' (1639), a tragedy in verse.

His long epic ''Clovis'' (1657) is noteworthy because Desmarets rejected the traditional [[Paganism|pagan]] background, and maintained that [[Christianity|Christian]] imagery should supplant it. With this standpoint he contributed several works in defence of the moderns in the famous quarrel between the [[Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns|Ancients and Moderns]].

In his later years Desmarets devoted himself chiefly to producing a number of religious poems, of which the best known is perhaps his verse translation of the ''Office de la Vierge'' (1645). He was an outspoken opponent of the [[Jansenism|Jansenists]], against whom he wrote a ''Réponse à l'insolente apologie de Port-Royal'' (1666). He died in Paris on 28 October 1676.

==See also==
[[File:Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin - Clovis ou la France chrétienne.jpg|thumb|244x244px|''[https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Clovis_ou_la_France_chr%C3%A9tienne Clovis ou la France chrétienne]'' edition dating from 1657 printed in [[Leiden]] by the [[House of Elzevir|Elzevirs]].]]
{{portal|Poetry}}
* ''[[Guirlande de Julie]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Jean-Claude Vuillemin, "Jean Desmarets de Saint Sorlin,", in L. Foisneau, ed., ''[[Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century French Philosophers]]'', 2 vols. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2008. I. pp.&nbsp;355–59.
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Desmarets, Jean|volume=8|page=97}}
* H. Rigault (1856). ''Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes'', pp.&nbsp;80–103.
* {{cite web|title=Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin (1595-1676) |url=http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=10 |publisher=Académie française |language=French |year=2009 |access-date=2009-01-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081117200536/http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=10 |archive-date=2008-11-17 }}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jean Desmarets}}

{{Commons category|Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin}}
{{Académie française Seat 4}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desmarets, Jean}}
[[Category:1595 births]]
[[Category:1676 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:17th-century French poets]]
[[Category:17th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century French novelists]]
[[Category:17th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]