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SCARRON, PAUL (1610-166o)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 305 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCARRON, See also:PAUL (1610-166o) , See also:French poet, dramatist, novelist and See also:husband of Madame de See also:Maintenon, was baptized on the 4th of See also:July 1610. His See also:father, of the same name, was a member of the See also:parlement of See also:Paris. Paul the younger became an See also:abbe when he was nineteen, and in 1633 entered the service of See also:Charles de See also:Beaumanoir, See also:bishop of Le Mans, with whom he travelled to See also:Rome in 1635. Finding a See also:patron in See also:Marie de Hautefort, he became a well-known figure in See also:literary and See also:fashion-able society. An improbable See also:story is told on the authority of La Beaumelle (Memoires . . de Mme de Maintenon) that—when in See also:residence at his canonry of Le Mans—he once tarred and feathered himself as a See also:carnival freak and, being obliged to take See also:refuge from popular wrath in a swamp, was crippled from See also:rheumatism. What is certain is that Scarron, after having been in perfect See also:health for nearly See also:thirty years, passed twenty more in a See also:state of miserable deformity and See also:pain. His See also:head and See also:body were See also:twisted, and his legs became useless. He See also:bore up against his sufferings with invincible courage, though his circumstances were further complicated by a See also:series of lawsuits with his step-See also:mother over his father's See also:property, and by the poverty and misconduct of his sisters, whom he supported. Scarron returned to Paris in 164o, and in 1643 appeared a Recueil de quelques vers burlesques, and in the next See also:year See also:Typhon ou la gigantomachie. At Le Mans he had conceived the See also:idea of the See also:Roman comique, the first See also:part of which was printed in 1651. In 1645 was performed the See also:comedy of Jodelet, ou le maitre See also:valet, the name of which was derived from the actor who took the See also:principal "part.

Jodelet was the first of many French plays in which the See also:

humour depends on the valet who takes the part of See also:master, an idea that Scarron borrowed from the See also:Spanish. After a See also:short visit to Le Mans in 1646, he returned to Paris, and worked hard for the bookseller See also:Quinet, calling his See also:works his " marquisat de Quinet." He had also a See also:pension from See also:Fouquet, and one from the See also:queen, which was withdrawn because he was suspected of Frondeur sentiments. When See also:Mazarin received the See also:dedication of Typhon coldly, Scarron changed it to a See also:burlesque on the See also:minister. In 1651 he definitely took the See also:side of the See also:Fronde in a Mazarinade, a violent pamphlet. He now had no resources but his " marquisat." In his See also:early years he had been something of a libertine. In 1649 a penniless See also:lady of See also:good See also:family, See also:Celeste Palaiseau, kept his See also:house in the See also:Rue d'Enfer, and tried to reform the See also:gay See also:company which assembled there. But in 1652, sixteen years after he had become almost entirely paralysed, he married a girl of much beauty and no See also:fortune, Frangoise d'See also:Aubigne, afterwards famous as Madame de Maintenon (q.v.). Scarron had See also:long been able to endure See also:life only by the aid of See also:constant doses of See also:opium, and he died on the 6th of See also:October 166o. Scarron's See also:work is very abundant and very unequal. The piece most famous in his own See also:day, his Virgile See also:travesty (1648–1653), is now thought a somewhat ignoble See also:waste of singular See also:powers for burlesque. But the Roman comique (1651–1657) is a work the merit of which is denied by no competent See also:judge. Unfinished, and a little desultory, this See also:history of a See also:troop of strolling actors is almost the first French novel, in point of date, which shows real See also:power of See also:painting See also:manners and See also:character, and is singularly vivid.

It is in the See also:

style of the Spanish See also:picaresque See also:romance, and furnished See also:Theophile See also:Gautier with the idea and with some of the details of his Capitaine Fracasse. Scarron also wrote some shorter novels: La Precaution inutile, which inspired See also:Sedaine's Gageure imprevue; See also:Les Hypocrites, to which Tartuffe owes something, and others. Of his plays Jodelet (1645) and See also:Don Japhet d'Armenie (1653) are the best. The most See also:complete edition of his works is by La Martiniere, 1737 (10 vols., See also:Amsterdam). The Roman comique and the Eneide travestie were edited by See also:Victor Fournel in 1857 and 1858. Among the contemporary notices of Scarron, that contained in the Historiettes of See also:Tallemant See also:des Reaux is the most accurate. The most important See also:modern works on the subject are Scarron et le genre burlesque (1888) by Paul Morillot; a See also:biography by J. J. See also:Jusserand in See also:English, prefixed to his edition of The Comical Romance and other tales by Paul Scarron, done into English by Tom See also:Brown of See also:Shifnal, See also:John See also:Savage and others (2 vols., 1892); and Paul Scarron et Francoise d'Aubigne d'apres des documents nouveaux (1894) by A. de Boislisle.

End of Article: SCARRON, PAUL (1610-166o)

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