Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Hilaire Bernard de Longepierre

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Occupation
  
Playwright

Hilaire-Bernard de Longepierre httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Full Name
  
Hilaire Bernard de Requeleyne

Born
  
18 Octobre 1659
Dijon

Died
  
30 March 1731, Paris, France

Hilaire-Bernard de Requeleyne, baron de Longepierre (18 October 1659 – 30 March 1721) was an 17th–18th-century French playwright.

Contents

Short biography

A child prodigy, quoted in Enfants célèbres by Baillet, Baron Longepierre began by giving translations of Greek poets accompanied by scholarly notes. The coldness and infidelity of these translations earned him the sarcasm of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, who then mocked his trials at tragedies.

If the bucolic style He wants by the dramatic From the rank of abject authors.

Longepierre's tragedies aimed in fact to regain the perfect purity of Greek theater. His best play, Medea (1694), was first greeted coldly but triumphed when it was revived in 1728 and every time a talented actress undertook the title role. This tragedy, devoid of love, has terrifying passages, but it is static and the style is hard, verbose and declamatory. Longepierre then gave Sesostris (1695) and Electra (1702) which had little performances.

Despite Rousseau's epigrams, Longepierre, who had a large fortune, enjoyed general respect and was preceptor to the Count of Toulouse, then to the Duke of Chartres, future regent of the kingdom, of which he became ordinary gentleman. He was also private secretary of the Duke of Berry.

Works

Dramas
  • 1694: Médée, five-act tragedy, 13 February
  • 1695: Sésostris, five-act tragedy
  • 1702: Électre, five-act tragedy
  • 1712: Jérusalem délivrée, five-act tragédie en musique, music by the Duke of Orléans, played in Fontainebleau on 17 October
  • Poetry and translations
  • 1684: Odes d'Anacréon et de Sapho, translated into French verse with remarks
  • 1686: Idylles de Bion et de Moschus, translated into French verse with remarks (text available on Gallica)
  • 1687: Discours sur les anciens, against Charles Perrault
  • 1688: Idylles de Théocrite, translated into French verse
  • 1690: Idylles nouvelles
  • 1719: Lettre à M. de Voltaire sur la nouvelle tragédie d'Œdipe (text available on Gallica)
  • References

    Hilaire-Bernard de Longepierre Wikipedia