Corneille's heroes, for example, have been labeled by modern critics as vainglorious, extravagant and prideful however, contemporary aristocratic readers would see these characters (and their actions) as representative of nobility. The spectacle of power, prestige and luxury found in 17th-century literature may be distasteful or even offensive. Most notable of these values are the aristocratic obsession with glory ( la gloire) and majesty ( la grandeur). In certain instances, the values of 17th-century nobility played a major part in the literature of the era. Founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu, L'Académie française focuses on the French language. The first private academy to fall under governmental control was L'Académie française, which remains the most prestigious governmental academy in France. In the mid-17th century, academies gradually came under government control and sponsorship and the number of private academies decreased. However, certain salons (such as that of Marguerite de Valois) were closer to the academic spirit. Academies were generally more formal and more focused on criticism and analysis than salons, which encouraged pleasurable discourse about society. The first half of the 17th century was marked by a phenomenal growth in private academies, organised around a half-dozen or a dozen individuals who met regularly. Academies first appeared in France during the Renaissance, when Jean-Antoine de Baïf created one devoted to poetry and music, inspired by the academy of Italian Marsilio Ficino. In the context of French scholastica, academies were scholarly societies which monitored, fostered, and critiqued French culture. Ruelle ("little street") refers to the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom it became a name for these gatherings (and the intellectual and literary circles evolving from them), often under the wing of educated women in the first half of the 17th century. Nobles, lying on their beds, would receive close friends and offer them seats on chairs or stools surrounding the bed. For instance, the term ruelle derives from literary gatherings held in the bedroom, a practice popular even with Louis XIV. Before 1664, literary gatherings were often called by the name of the room in which they occurred - cabinet, réduit, alcôve, and ruelle. The word salon first appeared in French in 1664 from the Italian word sala, the large reception hall of a mansion. In the 1620s, the most famous salon was held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet by Madame de Rambouillet a rival gathering was organized by Madeleine de Scudéry. In the absence of a national literary culture, private salons formed around upper-class women such as Marie de Medici and Marguerite de Valois, devoting themselves to discussions of literature and society. Henry's literary tastes were largely limited to the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul. The court also lacked a queen, who traditionally servedĪs a focus (or patron) of a nation's authors and poets. Henry IV's court was considered by contemporaries a rude one, lacking the Italianate sophistication of the court of the Valois kings. Under Cardinal Richelieu, patronage of the arts and literary academies increasingly came under the control of the monarchy. In the mid-17th century, there were an estimated 2,200 authors in France (mostly nobles and clergy), writing for a reading public of just a few tens of thousands. The production of literary works such as poems, plays, works of criticism or moral reflection was increasingly considered a necessary practice by nobles, and the creation (or patronage) of the arts served as a means of social advancement for both non- and marginalized noblemen. Throughout the 17th century this new concept transformed the image of the rude noble into an ideal of honnête homme ("the upright man") or the bel esprit ("beautiful spirit") whose chief virtues included eloquent speech, skill at dance, refined manners, appreciation of the arts, intellectual curiosity, wit, a spiritual or platonic attitude towards love and the ability to write poetry.Ĭentral to this transformation of literature were the salons and literary academies which flourished during the first decades of the 17th century the expanded role of noble patronage was also significant. A new conception of nobility, modelled on the Italian Renaissance courts and theirĬoncept of the perfect courtier, was beginning to evolve through French literature. In Renaissance France, literature (in the broadest sense of the term) was largely the product of encyclopaedic humanism, and included works produced by an educated class of writers from religious and legal backgrounds. Society and literature in 17th-century France 2.1 Les Amours and Les histoires tragiques.1 Society and literature in 17th-century France.
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