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DESCHAMPS, EUSTACHE

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 91 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DESCHAMPS, EUSTACHE , called See also:MOREL (1346 ?-14o6 ?), See also:French poet, was See also:born at Vertus in See also:Champagne about 1346. He studied at See also:Reims, where he is said to have received some lessons in the See also:art of versification from See also:Guillaume de See also:Machaut, who is stated to have been his See also:uncle. From Reims he proceeded about 136o to the university of See also:Orleans to study See also:law and the seven liberal arts. He entered the See also:king's service as royal messenger about 1367, and was sent on See also:missions to Bohemia, See also:Hungary and See also:Moravia. In 1372 he was made huissier d'armes to See also:Charles V. He received many other important offices, was bailli of See also:Valois, and afterwards of Senlis, See also:squire to the Dauphin, and See also:governor of Fismes. In 1380 his See also:patron, Charles V., died, and in the same See also:year the See also:English burnt down his See also:house at Vertus. In his See also:child-See also:hood he had been an See also:eye-See also:witness of the English invasion of 1358; he had been See also:present at the See also:siege of Reims and seen the See also:march on See also:Chartres; he had witnessed the See also:signing of the treaty of Bretigny; he was now himself a victim of the English fury. His violent hatred of the English found vent in numerous appeals to carry the See also:war into See also:England, and in the famous prophecy 1 that England would be destroyed so thoroughly that no one should be able to point to her ruins. His own misfortunes and the miseries of See also:France embittered his See also:temper. He complained continually of poverty, railed against See also:women and lamented the woes of his See also:country. His last years were spent on his Miroir de mariage, a See also:satire of 13,000 lines against women, which contains some real See also:comedy.

The See also:

mother-in-law of French See also:farce has her prototype in the Miroir. The See also:historical and patriotic poems of Deschamps are of much greater value. He does not, like See also:Froissart, See also:cast a glamour over the miserable See also:wars of the See also:time but gives a faithful picture of the anarchy of France, and inveighs ceaselessly against the heavy taxes, the vices of the See also:clergy and especially against those who enrich themselves at the expense of the See also:people. The terrible ballad with the refrain " Sd, de l'argent; sd, de l'argent " is typical of his See also:work. Deschamps excelled in the use of the See also:ballade and the See also:chant royal. In each of these forms he was the greatest See also:master of his time. In ballade See also:form he expressed his regret for the See also:death of Du Guesclin, who seems to have been the only See also:man except his patron, Charles V., for whom he ever See also:felt any admiration. One of his ballades (No. 285) was sent with a copy of his See also:works to See also:Geoffrey See also:Chaucer, whom he addresses with the words: " Tuesd'amours mondains dieux en Albie Et de la See also:Rose en la terre Angelique." Deschamps was the author of an Art poetique, with the See also:title of L'Art de dictier et de fere chancons, balades, virelais et rondeaulx. Besides giving rules for the See also:composition of the kinds of See also:verse mentioned in the title he enunciates some curious theories on See also:poetry. He divides See also:music into music proper and poetry. Music proper he calls artificial on the ground that everyone could by dint of study become a musician; poetry he calls natural because 1" De la See also:pro hetie See also:Merlin sur la destruction d'Angleterre qui doit brief advenir " (CEuvres, No.

211). he says it is not an, art that can be acquired but a See also:

gift. He See also:lays immense stress on the See also:harmony of verse, because, as was the See also:fashion of his See also:day, he practically took it for granted that all poetry was to be sung. The work of Deschamps marks an important See also:stage in the See also:history of French poetry. With him and his contemporaries the See also:long, formless narrations of the trouveres give See also:place to complicated and exacting kinds of verse. He was perhaps by nature a moralist and satirist rather than a poet, and the force and truth of his historical pictures gives him a unique place in 14th-See also:century poetry. M. Raynaud fixes the date of his death in 1406, or at latest, 1407. Two years earlier he had been relieved of his See also:charge as bailli of Senlis, his See also:plain-spoken satires having made him many enemies at See also:court. His Euvres completes were edited (so vols., 1878–19o1) for the Societe See also:des anciens textes See also:francais by Queux de See also:Saint-Hilaire and Gaston Raynaud. A supplementary See also:volume consists of an Introduction by G. Raynaud.

See also Dr E. Hoeppner, Eustache Deschamps (See also:

Strassburg, 1904).

End of Article: DESCHAMPS, EUSTACHE

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