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THEOPHILE

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 786 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEOPHILE , the name by which Theophile de Viau (or Viaud), See also:

French poet (1591–1626), is more commonly called. He was See also:born in 1591, at Clairac, near See also:Agen, and spent his See also:early years at Bousseres de Mazeres, his See also:father's See also:property. He was educated at the See also:Protestant See also:college of See also:Saumur, and he went to See also:Paris in his twentieth See also:year. In 1612 he met See also:Balzac, with whom he made an expedition to the See also:Netherlands, which ended in a serious See also:quarrel. On his return he seems to have been for two years a See also:regular playwright to the actors at the Hotel de Bourgogne. In 1615 he attached himself to the See also:ill-fated See also:Henry, See also:duke of See also:Montmorency (1595–1632), under whose See also:protection he produced with success the tragedy of Pyrame et Thisbe, acted probably about 1617 and printed in 1623, although placed later by some critics. This piece, written in the extravagant See also:Spanish-See also:Italian manner, which was fashionable in the See also:interval between the Pleiade See also:model and the innovations of See also:Corneille, was ridiculed by Boileau (See also:Preface to his (Duvres, 1701). Theophile was the acknowledged See also:leader of a set of Parisian See also:libertines, whose excesses seem to have been chiefly dictated by a See also:general hatred of See also:restraint. He himself was not only a Huguenot, but a See also:free-thinker, and had made unsparing use of his See also:sharp wit in epigrams on the See also:Church and on the See also:government. In 1619 he was accused of blasphemous and indecent writings, and was banished from Paris. He took See also:refuge in the See also:south of See also:France, where he found protection with many See also:friends. He was allowed to return in the next year, and effected a partial reconciliation with one of his most powerful enemies, the due de See also:Luynes.

He served in that year in the See also:

campaign against the See also:Huguenots, but in the autumn was again in See also:exile, this See also:time in See also:England. He was re-called in 1621, and began to be instructed in the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:religion, though his See also:abjuration of Protestantism was deferred until the end of 1622. There is nothing to show that this See also:conversion was purely See also:political; in any See also:case it did little to mollify his enemies. In 1622 he had contributed four pieces to the Nouveau Parnasse Satirique, a See also:miscellany of See also:verse by many hands. In the next year a new edition appeared, with the addition of some licentious verse, and the inscription See also:par le sour Theophile on the See also:title-See also:page. Contemporary See also:opinion justified Theophile's denial of this ascription, but the Jesuit father, See also:Francois Garasse, published a See also:tract against him entitled La See also:Doctrine curieuse (1623). Theophile was again prosecuted. This time he fled from Paris, to the See also:court of Montmorency, and was condemned in his See also:absence (19th of See also:August 1623) to See also:death. On his See also:flight to the border he was arrested, and imprisoned in the Conciergerie in Paris. He defended himself in an Apologie au roi (1625), and was liberated in See also:September, his See also:sentence beingcommuted to banishment for See also:life. Under Montmorency's protection he was able to hide in Paris for some time, and he subsequently accompanied his friend and See also:patron to the south. He died in Paris on the 25th of September 1626.

The See also:

great See also:interest aroused by the See also:prosecution and See also:defence of Theophile is shown by the number of See also:pamphlets on the subject, See also:forty-two of which, written between the See also:dates 1622 and 1626, are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. See also:Les tEuvres du Sieur Theophile were printed in Paris in 1621, and other collections followed during his lifetime. Six years after his death Georges de See also:Scudery edited his See also:work with a Tombeau (copy of obituary verses), and a See also:challenge in the preface to any one who might be offended by the editors eulogy of the poet. A tragedy entitled Pasiphae, published in 1631, is probably not Theophile's, and is not included in his See also:works, the See also:standard See also:modern edition of which is that of Alleaume in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne (2 vols. 1856). Besides Pyrame et Thisbe, his works include a See also:paraphrase, See also:half verse, half See also:prose, of the See also:Phaedo. There are numerous French and Latin letters, his Apologie, a promising fragment of comic prose narrative, and a large collection of occasional_ verses, odes, elegies, stanzas, &c. In addition to Alleaume's edition, a delightful See also:article in Theophile See also:Gautier's Grotesques should be consulted respecting him. A full See also:account of the extensive literature dealing with Theophile is given by Dr K. Schirmacher in a study on Theophile de Viau (See also:Leipzig and Paris, 1897). In the Page disgracie of See also:Tristan 1'Hermite, the page makes the acquaintance of a dramatic author, and his description may be accepted as a contemporary portrait of Theophile's vigorous See also:personality.

End of Article: THEOPHILE

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