About
Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, born in Paris in 1670 or 1671, was a French lyric poet and playwright. Educated by Jesuits and mentored by Boileau, he gained fame for his odes, cantatas, and epigrams. As the creator of the French cantata, he was elected to the Académie des inscriptions in 1701. In 1712, condemned for defamatory verses, he was banished for life and lived in Switzerland, Vienna, and Brussels. His lyrical work, marked by spirituality and satire, influenced French poetry until Romanticism.
* 1670-04-06 — † 1741-03-17
Major works
- Le Café (1694)comedy
- Vénus et Adonis (1697)opera
- Le Flatteur (1698)comedy
- Le Capricieux (1700)comedy
- Cantates françoises (1705)collection of cantatas
Key milestones
- 1701Elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.
- 1712Condemned in absentia for defamatory verses and banished from France for life.
- 1741Dies in Brussels in poverty.
Themes
spiritualitysatirenatureloveexile
Sources: data.bnf.fr · britannica.com · newadvent.org