Home > Edmé Boursault

On his first arrival in Paris in 1651 his language was limited to a Burgundian patois, but within a year he produced his first comedy, Le Mon vivant. This and some other pieces of small merit secured for him distinguished patronage in the society ridiculed by Molière in the Ecole des femmes. Boursault was persuaded that the Lysidas of that play was a caricature of himself, and attacked Molière in Le Portrait du peintre ou la contre-critique de l'Ecole des femmes (1663). Molière retaliated in L'Impromptu de Versailles, and Boileau attacked Boursault in Satires 7 and 9. Boursault replied to Boileau in his Satire des satires (1669), but was afterwards reconciled with him, when Boileau on his side erased his name from his satires.

Boursault obtained a considerable pension as editor of a rhyming gazette, which was, however, suppressed for ridiculing a Capuchin friar, and the editor was only saved from the Bastille by the interposition of Condé. In 1671 he produced a work of edification in Ad usum Delphini: la veritable étude des souverains, which so pleased the court that its author was about to be made assistant tutor to the dauphin when it was found that he was ignorant of Greek and Latin, and the post was given to Pierre HuetPierre Daniel Huet ( 1630- 1721) was a French churchman and scholar, Bishop of Soissons from 1685 to 1689 and afterwards of Avranches. He was born at Caen in 1630, and educated at the Jesuit school there. He also received lessons from a Protestant pastor,. Perhaps in compensation Boursault was made collector of taxes at Montlucon about 1672Events England, France, Munster and Cologne invade the United Provinces, therefore this name is know as ´het rampjaar´ (the disaster year) in the Netherlands. March 15 Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence. June 28 William III o, an appointment that he retained until 1688Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the " Immortal Seven", invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. November 5 Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham but James II of England was prevented from meeting him in.

Among his best-known plays are Le Mercure galant, the title of which was changed to La Comdie sans litre (1683); La Princesse de Clêves (1676), an unsuccessful play which, when refurbished with fresh names by its author, succeeded as Germanicus; Esope à la ville (1690); and Esope à la cour (1701). His lack of dramatic instinct could hardly be better indicated than by the scheme of his Esope, which allows the fabulist to come on the stage in each scene and recite a fable. Boursault died in Paris on the 15th of September 1701.

The Œuvres choisies of Boursault were published in 1811, and a sketch of him is to be found in M. Saint-René Taillandier's Etudes littéraires (1881).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica