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REGNARD, JEAN FRANCOIS (1655-1709)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 46 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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REGNARD, See also:JEAN See also:FRANCOIS (1655-1709) , See also:French comic dramatist, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 7th of See also:February 16s5. His See also:father, a See also:rich shopkeeper, died when Regnard was about twenty, leaving him See also:master of a considerable See also:fortune. He set off at once for See also:Italy, and, after a See also:series of romantic adventures, he journeyed by See also:Holland, See also:Denmark and See also:Sweden to See also:Lapland, and thence by See also:Poland, See also:Turkey, See also:Hungary and See also:Germany back to Fiance. He returned to Paris at the end of 1683, and bought the See also:place of treasurer of See also:France in the Paris See also:district; he had a See also:house at Paris in the See also:Rue See also:Richelieu; and he acquired the small See also:estate of Grillon near Dourdan in the See also:department of See also:Seine-et-See also:Oise, where he hunted, feasted and wrote comedies. This latter amusement he began in 1688 with a piece called Le See also:Divorce, which was performed at the See also:Theatre Italien. In four slight pieces of the same nature he collaborated with See also:Charles See also:Riviere See also:Dufresny. He gained See also:access to the Theatre See also:Francais on the 19th of May 1694 with a piece called Attendez-moi sous l'See also:orme, and two years later, on the 19th of See also:December 1696, he produced there the masterly See also:comedy of Le Joueur. The See also:idea of the See also:play was evolved in collaboration with Dufresny, but the authors disagreed in carrying it out. Finally they each produced a comedy on the subject, Dufresny in See also:prose, and Regnard in See also:verse. Each accused the other of See also:plagiarism. The See also:plot of Regnard's piece turns on the love of two sisters for Valere, the gambler, who loves one and pretends to love the other, really deceiving them both, because there is no See also:room for any other See also:passion in his See also:character except the love of play. Other of his plays were La See also:Serenade (1694), Le See also:Bourgeois de See also:Falaise (1696), Le Distrait (1697), Democrite (1700), Le Retour imprevu (1700), See also:Les Folies amoureuses (1704), Les Menechmes (1705), a See also:clever following of See also:Plautus, and his masterpiece, Le Legataire universel (1708) Regnard's See also:death on the 4th of See also:September 1709 renews the doubtful and romantic circumstances of his earlier See also:life.

Some hint at See also:

poison, but the truth seems to be that his death was hastened by the See also:rate at which he lived. Besides the plays noticed above and others, Regnard wrote See also:miscellaneous poems, the autobiographical See also:romance of La Provencale, and several See also:short accounts in prose of his travels, published posthumously under the See also:title of Voyages. Regnard had written a reply to the tenth See also:satire of Boileau, Contre les femmes, and Boileau had retorted by putting Regnard among the poets depreciated in his See also:epistle Sur See also:mes vers. After the See also:appearance of Le Joueur the poet altered his See also:opinion and cut out the allusion. The saying attributed to Boileau when some one, thinking to See also:curry favour, remarked that Regnard was only a mediocre poet, ." Il n'est pas mediocrement gal," is both true and very appropriate. His French See also:style, especially in his purely prose See also:works, is not considered faultless. He is often unoriginal in his plots, and, whether Dufresny was or was not justified in his complaint about Le Joueur, it seems likely that Regnard owed not a little to him and to others; but he had a thorough grasp of comic situation and incident, and a most amusing See also:faculty of See also:dialogue. The first -edition of Regnard's works was published in 1731 (5 vols., See also:Rouen and Paris). There is a See also:good selection of almost every-thing important in the Collection See also:Didot (4 vols., 1819), but there is no absolutely See also:complete edition. The best is that published by Crapelet (6 vols., Paris, 1822). A selection by L. Moland appeared in 1893.

See also a Bibliographie et iconographie See also:

des ceuvres de J. F. Regnard Paris, Rouquette, 1878) ;.Le Pate J. F. Regnard en son chasteau de rillon, by J. See also:Guyot (Paris, 1907).

End of Article: REGNARD, JEAN FRANCOIS (1655-1709)

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