Antoine Héroet, surnamed La Maison-Neuve (d. 1568), French poet, was born in Paris of a family connected with the famous
chancellor, François Olivier.
His poetry belongs to his early years, for after he had taken orders he ceased to write profane poetry, no doubt because he
considered it out of keeping with his calling, in which he attained the dignity of bishop of Digue. His chief work is La
Parfaicte Amye (Lyons, 1542) in which he developed the idea of a purely spiritual love, based chiefly on the reading of the
Italian Neo-Platonists.
The book aroused great controversy. La Borderie replied in L'Amie de cour with a description of a very much more human
woman, and Charles Fontaine contributed a Contr'amye de court to the dispute, Héroet, in
addition to some translations from the classics, wrote the Complainte d'une dame nouvellement surprise d'amour, an
Epistre a François Ier, and some pieces included in the now very rare Opuscules d'amour par Héroet, La Borderie
et autres divins poetes (Lyons, 1547). Héroet belongs to the Lyonnese school of which
Maurice Scève may be regarded as the leader. Clement
Marot praises him, and Ronsard was careful to exempt him with one or two others
from the scorn he poured on his immediate predecessors.
See HF Cary, The Early French Poets (1846).
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia
Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public
domain.
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