Charles Cotin or Abbé Cotin (born 1604 in Paris; died December 1681 in Paris) was a French abbé

Abbé

Abbé is the French word for abbot. It is the title for lower-ranking Catholic clergymen in France....

, philosopher and poet. He was made a member of the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

 on 7 January 1655.

Cotin was a scholar of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, an advisor to Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

, and renowned in his time for his sermons, poetry, and erudition. He frequented the Paris literary salons, particularly that of the Hôtel de Rambouillet

Hôtel de Rambouillet

The Hôtel de Rambouillet was the Paris residence of Madame de Rambouillet, who ran a renowned literary salon there from about 1607 until her death in 1665...

 as a friend of Mlle de Gournay, and his translation of the Song of Songs

Song of songs

Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:* Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants* A generic term for medleysPlays...

 is more notable for its flavor of fashionable salons than of sacred poetry.

Cotin is remembered for his violent squabbles with Nicolas Boileau and Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

, who gave him a stinging satiric immortality as the character Trissotin in Les Femmes savantes

Les Femmes Savantes

Les Femmes savantes is a play by Molière in five acts, written in verse. A satire on academic pretention, female education, and préciosité , it was one of his most popular comedies...

.

Works

• La Jérusalem désolée, ou Méditation sur les leçons de Ténèbres (1634)
• Recueil des énigmes de ce temps (1646)
• Théoclée, ou la Vraye philosophie des principes du monde (1646)
• Nouveau Recueil de divers rondeaux (1650)
• Traité de l'âme immortelle (1655)
• Œuvres meslées, contenant : énigmes, odes, sonnets et épigrammes (1659)
• La pastorale sacrée, ou Paraphrase du Cantique des Cantiques selon la lettre (1660)
• Oraison funèbre pour messire Abel Servien
  Abel Servien
  Abel Servien, marquis de Sablé et de Boisdauphin, comte de Roche-Servien and comte de La Roche des Aubiers was a French diplomat who served Cardinal Mazarin and signed for the French at the Treaty of Westphalia...
  
  , ministre d'État et surintendant des finances (1659)
• La Ménagerie : à Son Altesse Royale Mademoiselle, a satire against Gilles Ménage
  Gilles Ménage
  Gilles Ménage was a French scholar.He was born at Angers, the son of Guillaume Ménage, king's advocate at Angers, where Gilles was born....
  
  , (1660)
• Réflexions sur la conduite du roi (1663)
• Œuvres galantes en prose et en vers de monsieur Cotin (1663)
• Odes royales sur les mariages des princesses de Nemours (1665)
• La Critique désintéressée sur les satyres du temps (1666)
• Poësies chrestiennes de l'abbé Cotin (1668)

External links

• Academie Francaise biography