Michel Le Clerc
Encyclopedia
Life
After studying under the Jesuits, he established himself in Paris, where he became a lawyer to the parliament of Paris. Like his co-student Claude BoyerClaude Boyer
Claude Boyer was a French clergyman, playwright, apologist and poet....
, he wrote tragedies and "pièces des circonstance"; he produced his Virginie romaine in 1645, the same year as Boyer produced his Porcie romaine. He was elected to 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,...
in 1662. His Iphigénie (written with Jacques de Coras
Jacques de Coras
Jacques de Coras was a French poet born in Toulouse. Grandson of the Huguenot jurist Jean de Coras, he was raised in the Protestant Reformed Church of France. After serving as a cadet in the military, he studied theology, and exercised the functions of a Protestant minister in Guyenne...
) was put on in 1674, the same year as the Iphigénie
Iphigénie
Iphigénie is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by the French playwright Jean Racine. It was first performed in the Orangerie in Versailles on August 18th 1674 as part of the fifth of the royal Divertissements de Versailles of Louis XIV to celebrate the conquest of...
by Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
.
Le Clerc is best known for his translation of Jerusalem Delivered
Jerusalem Delivered
Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Catholic knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem...
by Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
, but his work was attacked by Nicolas Boileau and suffered from a generally unfavourable reputation. Jean Chapelain
Jean Chapelain
Jean Chapelain was a French poet and writer.-Biography:Chapelain was born in Paris. His father wanted him to become a notary; but his mother, who had known Pierre de Ronsard, had decided otherwise...
wrote of him "He wrote reasonably in French prose and not without wit. In prose, he is well above the mediocre, whether in original creation, or in translation".
Works
- La Virginie romaine, tragédie (1645)
- La Hiérusalem délivrée, poëme héroïque traduit en vers français (1667)
- Iphigénie en Aulide, tragédie (1674)
- Orontée, tragédie en musique ornée d'entrées de ballet, de machines et de changemens de théâtre représentée dans le chasteau de ChantillyChâteau de ChantillyThe Château de Chantilly is a historic château located in the town of Chantilly, France. It comprises two attached buildings; the Grand Château, destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s, and the Petit Château which was built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency...
devant Monseigneur le Dauphin par l'Académie royale de musique (1688)