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Melin de Saint-Gelais

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SAINT - GELAIS, Melin De (1487-1558), French poet, was born at Angouleme on the 3rd of November 1487. He was the natural son of Octavien de St Gelais (1466-1502), afterwards bishop of Angouleme, himself a poet who had translated the Aeneid into French. Melin, who had studied at Bologna and Padua, had the reputation of being doctor, astrologer and musician as well as poet. He returned to France in 1515, and soon gained favour at the court of Francis I. by his skill in light verse. He was made almoner to the Dauphin, abbot of Reclus in the diocese of Troyes and librarian to the king at Fontainebleau. He enjoyed immense popularity until the appearance of Du Bellay's Dejfense et illustration ... in 1549, where St Gelais was not excepted from the scorn poured on contemporary poets. He attempted to ridicule the innovators by reading aloud the Odes of Ronsard with burlesque emphasis before Henry II., when the king's sister, Margaret of Valois, seized the book and read them herself. Ronsard accepted Saint-Gelais's apology for this incident, but Du Bellay satirized the offender in the Poete courtisan. In 1554 he collaborated, perhaps with Francois Habert (1520-1574?), in a translation of the Sophonisbe of Trissino which was represented (1554) before Catherine de Medicis at Blois. Saint-Gelais was the champion of the style marotique and the earliest of French sonneteers. He died in 1558. His Ouvres were edited in 5873 (3 vols., Bibl. elzevirienne ) by Prosper Blanchemain.