Malherbe, François de

MALHERBE, FRANÇOIS de. - Poet and grammarian, b. at Caen in 1555, d. at Paris on 16 Oct. 1628. His father and four of his brothers were Protestants; he remained Catholic. Secretary to the Duke of Angoulême, he followed him to Provence; he returned to Normandy after his death and began to compose verses of little worth, such as Les larmes de st-Pierre (in imitation of Tansillo). In 1600 he presented at Aix an ode to Marie de' Medici, A la reine sur sa bienvenue en France.

Recommended by Card. du Perron, he entered the court in 1605 as gentleman of the chamber to Henry IV. He was protected by Marie de' Medici during the regency, and by Louis XIII. M.'s importance consists in his reform of the language and of poetic technique. Through his criticism of the poets of the Pléiade and of his contemporaries, he fixed the new language, free of neologisms and archaisms, devoid of idiomatic peculiarities, whose characteristics are purity of expression, clarity and syntactic order. With regard to versification, he formulated precise rules, simplifying the meter and giving preference to those of regular structure. Boileau, in the Art poétique, recognized the value of M.'s innovations, which in reality foreshadowed classical French poetry. As a poet, M. has less value, since he lacks imagination and feeling. His verses, technically perfect, have a broad rhythmic movement and a particular harmony of their own, often too oratorical, at times strong and effective.

Costanza Pasquali