Saint-Évremond, Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, sieur de (1613-1703). A man of the world who preferred conversation to books, he left a scattering of short pieces, much admired by contemporaries for their wit and natural style. Including essays and letters, together with some verse and three comedies, they were mostly published as Œuvres mêlées (1705). Scholarly editions of the Œuvres en prose (4 vols., 1962-9) and the Lettres (2 vols., 1967-8) have been published by R. Ternois.
Only a few years younger than Pierre Corneille, Saint-Evremond was born in Normandy and educated by the Jesuits. He served in Condé's army, but inclined towards the court in the Fronde. This did not prevent him from breaking with Mazarin; when his satirical letter on the Paix des Pyrénées was discovered in 1661 he took refuge in England, where he moved in fashionable court circles for the rest of his life, with the exception of four years in Holland (1665-9). He placed great value on friendship and polite society; among his close friends were fellow nobles such as the maréchal de Créqui and witty, independent women such as Ninon
His poetry is pleasant, often personal in tone, but unremarkable. His comedies, Les Académistes (1643), Sir Politick Would-Be (1662), and Les Opéra (1675) are satirical squibs which remained unperformed in spite of their verve. The last mocks a woman obsessed by Lully's art form, which is discussed in a more subtle way in his essay ‘Sur les opéras’. A good deal of his prose is literary criticism; it is deliberately unpedantic, placing great stress on an unexamined notion of ‘good taste’, the prerogative of the few. Saint-Évremond knew the Latin classics well, but he belonged to the camp of the modernes [see Querelle]. He constantly praises the heroic drama of Corneille as against the love-centred tragedies of Racine or the primitive productions of the ancient Greeks.
He wrote historical essays (‘Réflexions sur les divers génies du peuple romain’, 1662), but his most interesting pieces, such as ‘Conversation du maréchal d'Hocquincourt avec le père Canaye’ or ‘A M. le maréchal de Créqui’, concern morality and religion. He is an aristocratic disciple of Montaigne, an Epicurean, and a libertin. For him, religion and philosophy are uncertain, tolerance is the only reasonable attitude, and sociability, politeness, and the pleasures of body and mind are better than stiff and strenuous virtue.
[Peter France]
Bibliography
- A. M. Schmidt, Saint-Évremond, ou l'Humaniste impur (1932)
- H. T. Barnwell, Les Idées morales et critiques de Saint-Évremond (1957)
