Author: BONNEFONS, Jean
Biography:
BONNEFONS, Jean (1554-1614: NBG)
The Basia (“Kisses”) of Joannes Bonefonius, not to be confused with the Basia of Joannes Secundus, q.v., was first published in Paris in 1587. Short poems in praise of the poet’s mistress “Pancharis,” they took their inspiration from Catullus, q.v. From the Latin original they were soon after translated into French. Both Latin and English versions were current in the eighteenth century. In a preface, the anonymous translator of Belinda in 1797 refers to a version of 1770 with a notably indecent title: that version has not been traced. But it is clear that the Basia in some quarters was considered obscene. One of the reviewers of Belinda likened it to the ancient erotic poem which Edmund Curll had published in translation under the title Pervigilium Veneris: or The Nightly Sports of Venus, containing the Pleasures of Coition . . . (1721). The reviewer observed that anonymity was a wise choice for Belinda too, since “a translation of the Pervigilium Veneris would, we think, render any name infamous” (CR). Joannes Bonefonius was Jean Bonnefons or Bonefons, born at Clermont in the Auvergne, France, in 1554. He studied law at Bourges and became first an advocate in Paris and then a provincial administrator, the lieutenant-governor of Bar-sur-Seine, where he died in 1614. At an unknown date he married and is said to have given up erotic poetry. His son Jean Bonnefons was also a poet. (NBG 6, cols. 623-4; preface to Belinda; CR 22 [1798], 103) HJ
Other Names:
- Joannes Bonefonius