Online Encyclopedia

play was produced at the Hotel de Bourgogne in 1653, when he was only eighteen. The piece succeeded, and Quinault followed it up, but he also read for the See also:

bar; and in 1660, when he married a widow with See also:

MONEY

money, he bought himself a See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place in the Cour See also:

des Comptes. Then he tried tragedies (See also:

Agrippa, &c.) with more success than See also:

DESERT

desert. He received one of the See also:

LITERARY

literary See also:

PENSIONS

pensions then recently established, and was elected to the See also:

Academy in 1670. Up to this See also:

time he had written some sixteen or seventeen comedies, tragedies, and tragi-comedies, of which the tragedies were mostly of very small value and the tragi-comedies of little more. But his comedies—especially his first piece See also:

Les Rivales (1653), L'Amant indiscret (16J4), which has some likeness to See also:

MOLIERE (1622-1673)

Moliere's Etourdi, Le Fantome amoureux (1659), and La See also:

Mere coquette (1665), perhaps the best—are much better. But in 1671 he contributed to the singular See also:

MISCELLANY

miscellany of See also:

PSYCHE (//vxi7)

Psyche, in which See also:

Corneille and Moliere also had a See also:

hand, and which was set to the See also:

MUSIC

music of Lulli. Here he showed a remarkable See also:

FACULTY (through the French, from the Lat. facultas, ability to do anything, from facilis, easy, facere, to do; another form of the word in Lat. facilitas, facility, ease, keeps the original meaning)

faculty for lyrical See also:

DRAMA (literally "action," from Gr. Snail, act or do)

drama, and from this time till just before his See also:

DEATH

death he confined himselfto composing libretti for Lulli's See also:

WORK

work. This was not only very profitable (for he is said to have received four thousand livres for each, which was much more than was usually paid even for tragedy), but it established Quinault's reputation as the See also:

MASTER (Lat. magister, related to tnagis, more, as the corresponding minister is to minus, less; the English form is due partly to the O. Eng. maegister, and partly to O. Fr. maistre, mod. maitre; cf. Du. meester, Ger. Meister, Ital. maestro)

master of a new See also:

style,—so that even Boileau, who had previously satirized his dramatic work, was converted, less to the See also:

OPERA (Italian for " work ")

opera, which he did not like, than to Quinault's remarkably ingenious and artist-like work in it. His libretti are among the very few which are readable without the music, and which are yet carefully adapted to it.

They certainly do not contain very exalted See also:

POETRY

poetry or very perfect drama. But they are quite See also:

FREE

free from the ludicrous doggerel which has made the name libretto a byword, and they have quite enough dramatic merit to carry the reader, much more the spectator, along with them. It is not an exaggeration to say that Quinault, coming at the exact time when opera became fashionable out of See also:

Italy, had very much to do with establishing it as a permanent See also:

EUROPEAN

European genre. His first piece after Psyche was a See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind of classical masque. Les Fetes de l'Amour et de .Bacchus (1672). Then came See also:

CADMUS

Cadmus (1674), Alceste (1674), Thesee (1675), Atys (1676), one of his best pieces, and See also:

ISIS (Egyptian Ese)

Isis (1677). All these were classical in subject, and so was See also:

PROSERPINE (Proserpina)

Proserpine (1680), which was See also:

SUPERIOR

superior to any of them. The See also:

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

Triumph of Love (1681) is a mere See also:

BALLET

ballet, but in Persee (1682) and Phaeton (1683) Quinault returned to the classical opera. Then he finally deserted it for romantic subjects, in which he was even more successful. Amadis de Gaule (1684), See also:

Roland (1685), and Armide (1686) are his masterpieces, the last being the most famous and the best of all. The very artificiality of the French lyric of the later 17th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century, and its resemblance to alexandrines cut into lengths, were See also:

AIDS

aids to Quinault in arranging lyrical See also:

DIALOGUE

dialogue. Lulli died in 1687, and Quinault, his occupation gone, became devout, and began a poem called the " Destruction of See also:

HERESY

Heresy." He died on the 26th of See also:

NOVEMBER (Lat. novem, nine)

November 1688 The best edition of his See also:

WORKS

works is that of '739'(Paris, 5 vols.).

End of Article: QUINAULT, PHILIPPE (1635-1688)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
QUINAIELT

[next]
QUINAZOLINES (Phenmiazines or benzopyrimidines)