Jacques Grévin

Who was Jacques Grévin?

Jacques Grévin was a French dramatist.

Grévin was born at Clermont, Oise in about 1539, and he studied medicine at the University of Paris. He became a disciple of Ronsard, and was one of the band of dramatists who sought to introduce the classical drama in France. As Sainte-Beuve points out, the comedies of Grévin show considerable affinity with the farces and soties that preceded them. His first play, La Maubertine was lost, and formed the basis of a new comedy, La Trésorière, first performed at the college of Beauvais in 1558, though it had been originally composed at the desire of Henry II to celebrate the marriage of Claude, duchess of Lorraine.

He got engaged to the writer Nicole Estienne and he celebrated her in his collection L'Olimpe. The engagement was broken for unknown reasons.

In 1560 followed the tragedy of Jules César, imitated from the Latin of Muret, and a comedy, Les Ébahis, the most important but also the most indecent of his works. Grévin was also the author of some medical works and of miscellaneous poems, which were praised by Ronsard until the friends were separated by religious differences.