Mathurin Regnier

Mathurin Régnier, French writer (December 21, 1575 - October 22, 1613).

Life

Mathurin Régnier, is one of the most original writers of the XVI century. He was born in Chartres on December 21, 1575, the year of the Saint Bartholomew Massacre. His father, Jacques Régnier, was a bourgeois who had created a ball game in the Place des Halles that was very popular during his time under the name Régnier ratchet. His mother, Simone Desportes, was the sister of the poet Philippe Desportes, who was an abbot and quite well known in his time as a poet, in addition to being one of the intellectuals who managed to make money with his art. His father wanted Mathurin Régnier to inherit his uncle's ecclesiastical position, so he tonsured him at the age of seven.

Mathurin listened to his uncle read poetry and therefore began to imitate him, composing satirical poems aimed at the bourgeois who came to his father's restaurant. He traveled to Paris and at the age of 20 he joined the service of Cardinal de Joyeuse. He traveled for the first time to Rome in 1593 and began to write satires about it. This genre was very fashionable at the beginning of the XVII century, it was called Bernesque satire, in honor to the Italian Berni. The classics Horace and Juvenal also greatly influenced Régnier's work when it came to choosing themes, as well as Montaigne.

In 1601 he traveled to Rome for the second time, this time accompanying Philippe de Béthune, ambassador of King Henry IV, and remained there until 1605. He returned from this trip quite disappointed.

He died in Rouen, on October 22, 1613, at the age of forty.

Poetics

At the time in which Mathurin Régnier lived, controversy was alive between the followers of La Pléiade and those of Malherbe. His uncle Desportes was the main target of Malherbe's attacks, and Régnier was always aligned among the followers of La Pléiade, and they criticized the narrow corset that Malherbe wanted to impose on French poetry.

In his time Régnier was highly criticized for his depraved and bohemian life, which greatly affected the consideration that his work had at that time.

Works

• Sátiras (I-16)
• Epistles (Epistres)
• Elegías (Elégies)
• Various positions (Poésies diverses)
• Spiritual positions (Poésies spirituelles)