Aubigné, Agrippa d'

(1552-1630)

   writer

   Born in Pons, Saintonge, Agrippa d'Aubigné served as a military attaché to the future king henry iv, and was a staunch Calvinist who bore the memory of the Amboise conspiracy (1563) and the saint Bartholomew's day massacre (1572), which he survived. He was an erudite humanist as well as a valiant soldier, and wrote an ardent and diverse literary work describing his impassioned life, Histoire universelle depuis 1550 jusqu'en 1601 (1616-18), which is also a vivid and lively personal account of the huguenot community during the latter part of the 16th century. He was at first, however, a lyric poet, celebrating his love, Diane Saliviati (whom he could not marry because of the difference in religion) in the Petrarchan verses of Printemps du sieur d'Aubigné (composed between 1568 and 1575). He then demonstrated his religious zeal and his satirical nature in Les Tragiques (begun in 1577, published in 1656), in which he praises Divine Providence and Protestantism, speaks against the cruelty of war, and notes the sciences and the occult, and the political and military issues of the day. it is a long (seven cantos) work. After the abjuration of Henry iv, he retired to a political post in Maillerzais Vendée, where he continued to write. But his defense of Calvinism caused him to be exiled to Geneva, where he finished his colorful biography, Sa Vie à ses enfants (posthumous, 1729). Previously, his caustic style was apparent in his prose and in realistic and humorous pamphlets in which he criticized self-interested religious abjurations (Confession du très catholique sieurs de Sancy, posthumous, 1660) and ridiculed the court of marie de' medici (Les Aventures du baron de Faeneste, published 1617-20). In the later years of his life, Aubigné was saddened by the setbacks to the Protestant party in France and by the abjuration of his son Constant (the father of Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Mainténon). "one of the most expressive figures of the 16th century" (sainte-beuve), Agrippa d'Aubigné is equally by his art, in which a daring realism is combined with an elaborate and rich metaphysical style, one of the greatest representatives of baroque literature in France.