Everything about Honorat De Bueil Seigneur De Racan totally explained
Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan (sometimes mistakenly listed as "marquis de Racan", although he never held this title) (
Aubigné-Racan in the
Sarthe,
February 5,
1589 -
Paris 1670) was a
French aristocrat, soldier, poet, dramatist and (original) member of the
Académie française.
Racan was born into an illustrious noble family (originally of Italian origin) from the region of
Tours (site of the Racan fief and the château of La Roche-Racan),
Maine and
Anjou. An orphan at the age of 13 (both his uncle and father were killed in the wars), Racan came under the protection of the Count de Bellegarde (first gentleman of the king's chamber) and became a page for king
Henri IV of France. His education was minimal, and by his own account he learned only the rudiments of Latin, and was bored by most of his subjects, exception being made to French verse. Racan's successes as a courtier were limited by his physical appearance and his
stuttering (he reputedly had difficulties with both the letters r and c). In 1605, he met the estimed poet
François de Malherbe at the court, and the elder poet would become for Racan both a father figure and teacher. In
1621 Racan participated in the Protestant wars and his military career would continue through the next decades (including the
siege of Sancerre and the
siege of La Rochelle).
Around 1619, Racan's
pastoral play in verse
Les Bergeries (originally intitled
Arthénice) -- inspired by
Virgil,
Tasso's
Aminta,
Giambattista Guarini's
Il pastor fido,
Honoré d'Urfé's
L'Astrée, and, to a certain extent, the writings of
Saint François de Sales -- was performed to great acclaim. Racan had equal success with his
Stances de la retraite (1618), his translations of the
Psalms -- in an initial version in 1631, and later with his
Odes sacrées (tirées des psaumes de David) (1651) and
Dernières œuvres et poésies chrétiennes (1660) -- and his memoirs on the life of Malherbe (1651). Not knowing Hebrew, Racan relied on accurate French paraphrases of the sacred texts (such as those by
Clément Marot), but departed from the literal translations in the interest of poetic grace. Racan's acceptance speech for the Académie française
Contre les Sciences (1635), was an oration against "rules" and affectation, and in praise of "naturalness" (prefiguring
Jean-Jacques Rousseau by over a hundred years).
Racan's poetry was rigorous (he reworked his poems throughout his life and his works were often published with last minute errata), but he didn't completely reject the authors of Renaissance (unlike Malherbe, Racan appreciated
Pierre de Ronsard and
Michel de Montaigne) and was less inflexible on the question of the
three unities. His
elegies and pastoral show a sensitivity to the natural sights of his native region, and his poetry is often informed by a melancholy inspired by his youthful disappointments in love and the financial and personal tragedies of his life.
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