biography
| name: |
Saint-Amant, (Marc-) Antoine de Girard, sieur de (Lord of)
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pronunciation:
[sĩt amã]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1594–1661)
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| biography:
| Poet, born in Rouen, NW France. A Protestant adventurer, originally a sailor, he wrote an ode which attracted the attention of the Duke de Retz. A convert to Catholicism, he was present at the siege of La Rochelle (1628), followed the princes to various embassies, then lived in the court of the Queen of Poland (1649–50), and that of Christine of Sweden (1650). His themes were nature, love, humour, and spirituality, and his Rome Ridicule (1649) started the fashion for burlesque poems that was later developed by Paul Scarron. Among Saint-Amant's works are the famous Ode sur la solitude (1617), Les Visions (1618), Rome comique (1643), and La Lune parlante (1661). From 1623 to 1661 he published poems about his obesity, such as ‘Le Cidre’, ‘Les Melons’, and ‘Le Fromage’. He was elected one of the first members of the Académie Française (1634). |
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