Boisrobert, François Le Métel, seigneur de

▪ French dramatist

born 1589, Caen, France

died March 30, 1662, Paris

      prolific French dramatist, irreligious churchman, and founding member of the French Academy.

      A Norman Huguenot lawyer's son, he became a Catholic in the 1620s and began to take holy orders. His wit and effrontery won him the favour of Cardinal de Richelieu (Richelieu, Armand-Jean du Plessis, cardinal et duc de), and he was given a canonry at Rouen (1634) and an abbacy in Burgundy (1638)—posts in which he gave offense during his rare attendances. Meanwhile, he had published a paraphrase of the Psalms (1627); a novel, Histoire indienne d'Anaxandre et d'Orazie (1627; “Indian History of Anaxander and Orazia”); a tragicomedy, Pyrandre et Zysimène (1633); and anthologies of poems eulogizing King Louis XIII and Richelieu (1634–35). He used his influence with Richelieu not only to procure subsidies for other writers but also to promote the establishment of the French Academy.

      When Louis XIII heard from his own intriguing favourite, the Marquis de Cinq-Mars, that Boisrobert had made sexual advances to Richelieu's pages, he ordered Richelieu to dismiss him (1641). Under the next regime, Boisrobert's wit appealed little to Cardinal Mazarin, and his blasphemies offended the Jesuit entourage of the queen mother, Anne of Austria. Hence, his last 20 years were occupied mainly with dramaturgy. His plays are largely forgotten except by students of 17th-century French theatre.

* * *