Paul Scarron
baptized July 4, 1610, Paris, Fr.
died Oct. 7, 1660, Paris
French writer who contributed
significantly to the development of
three literary genres: the drama, the
burlesque epic, and the novel. He is
best known today for Le Roman comique
(“The Comic Novel”) and as the first
husband of Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise
de Maintenon, the influential second
wife of King Louis XIV.
Scarron’s origins were bourgeois, and
it was originally intended that he
should enter the church. After a period
in Brittany and a visit to Rome,
however, Scarron settled in Paris and
devoted himself to writing. His first
works were burlesques. The poet
Marc-Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant had
already started the vogue for parodies
of the classics, but Scarron is mainly
responsible for making the burlesque one
of the characteristic literary forms of
the mid-17th century. His seven-volume
Virgile travesty (1648–53) had a
tremendous success. Modern readers,
perhaps because they are less impressed
than Scarron’s contemporaries by the
daring of parodying the Aeneid, often
find the humour facile and too drawn
out.
Scarron, who married d’Aubigné in
1652, was also a considerable figure in
the theatrical life of Paris in the
years immediately preceding Molière’s
arrival in the capital. He often wrote
with particular actors in mind; for
example, Le Jodelet (produced 1645) was
written to include a starring role for
the popular comedian of the same name.
Scarron’s plots are usually based upon
Spanish originals, and even his most
successful comedy, Dom Japhet d’Arménie
(produced 1647), owes a good deal to a
play by Castillo Solórzano. Though no
longer performed, Scarron’s plays are of
real historical importance, and Molière
took many hints from them.
Scarron’s profound practical
experience of the theatre is reflected
in Le Roman comique, 3 vol. (1651–59).
This novel, composed in the style of a
Spanish picaresque romance, recounts
with gusto the comical adventures of a
company of strolling players. The humour
of Le Roman comique has lasted better
than that of the parodies, probably
because it is more human and less
literary. The realism of the novel makes
it an invaluable source of information
about conditions in the French provinces
in the 17th century.
