Antoine Houdar de la Motte

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Antoine Houdar de la Motte
Born(1672-01-18)18 January 1672
Paris
Died26 December 1731(1731-12-26) (aged 59)
Paris
OccupationChoreographer, writer, librettist, playwright, poet

Antoine Houdar de la Motte (18 January 1672 – 26 December 1731) was a French author.

De la Motte was born and died in Paris. In 1693 his comedy, Les Originaux (Les originaux, ou, l'Italien), was a complete failure, and so depressed the author that he contemplated joining the Trappists. Four years later he began writing texts for operas and ballets, e.g. L'Europe galante (1697), and tragedies, one of which, Inès de Castro (1723), was an immense success at the Theâtre Français. He was a champion of the moderns in the revived controversy of the ancients and moderns. His Fables nouvelles (1719) was regarded as a modernist manifesto. Anne Dacier had published (1699) a translation of the Iliad, and La Motte, who knew no Greek, made a translation (1714) in verse founded on her work.[1]

He said of his own work: "I have taken the liberty to change what I thought disagreeable in it." He defended the moderns in the Discours sur Homère prefixed to his translation, and in his Réflexions sur la critique (1716). Apart from the merits of the controversy, it was conducted on La Motte's side with a wit and politeness which compared very favourably with his opponents' methods. He was elected to the

Fontenelle. He had the same freedom from prejudice and the same inquiring mind as the latter, and it is on the excellent prose in which his views are expressed that his reputation rests.[1]

His Œuvres du theâtre (2 vols.) appeared in 1730, and his Œuvres (10 vols.) in 1754. See [[[ippolyte Rigault]] [fr], Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes (1859).[1]

Poetry

  • 1701: Le Premier livre de l'Iliade, translated into French verse
  • 1707: Églogue sur la naissance de Mgr le duc de Bretagne
  • Odes
    • 1707: Odes avec un Discours sur la poésie en général, et sur l'ode en particulier, (several latter editions)
    • 1712: Le Deuil de la France, ode
    • 1712: Le Souverain, ode
    • 1716: Ode sur la mort de Louis le Grand, ode
    • 1720: La critique, ode
  • Fables
    • 1714: Le Cygne, fable allegorique
    • 1719: Fables nouvelles, Paris, (several latter editions)
    • 1720: L'Indien et le soleil

Critics

Theatre

Gray
)

External links

Bibliography

  • Maurice Allem, Anthologie poétique française, XVIIIe, Paris, Garnier Frères, 1919
  • E. Dacier, « Le Premier Livre illustré au XVIIIe : les Fables de La Motte et les vignettes de Claude Gillot », in Trésors des bibliothèques de France, 1929, tome II, (p. 1-14)
  • Paul Dupont, Un Poète philosophe au commencement du XVIIIe : Houdar de La Motte (1672–1731), Thèse présentée à la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Paris, Paris, Hachette, 1898
  • Cardinal Georges Grente (dir.), Dictionnaire des lettres françaises. Le XVIIIe, nlle. édition revue et mise à jour sous la direction de François Moureau, Paris, Fayard, 1995
  • François Moureau, « Les Fables nouvelles (1719) de La Motte ou comment s'en débarrasser », Le Fablier, #2, 1990
  • J.G. Robertson, « Sources italiennes des Paradoxes dramatiques de La Motte », Rev. littérature comparée, 1923, (p. 369-375)
  • Claude-Sixte Sautreau de Marsy, Précis sur la vie et les ouvrages d'Houdar de La Motte, Paris, 1785

References

  1. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "La Motte, Antoine Houdar de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 131–132.

External links

Media related to Antoine Houdar de La Motte at Wikimedia Commons

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