Author: LA FONTAINE, Jean François de
Biography:
LA FONTAINE, Jean François de (1621-95: EB)
The French poet was born in early July 1621 at Château-Thierry in Champagne, where his father was an inspector of woods and waterways, and had a classical education at the Maison de l’Oratoire in Paris. Though expected to become a priest, he turned to the study of law, only to find it did not suit him either. He inherited his father’s post and held it from 1652 to 1671, but the truth seems to have been that he did not like regular employment. His interests were literary. His talent and personal charm secured him patronage and protection for most of his life, notably in the eight years he spent in the household of the dowager duchess of Orléans at Luxembourg (1664-72) and twenty with the salonière Mme de la Sablière (1673-93) at Paris. In 1647 he married an heiress, Marie Héricart, and they had a son, but they separated in 1658. La Fontaine’s miscellaneous writings include plays and poems on a variety of subjects—classical, religious, and licentious. His fame rests, however, on the 240 fables that he published in three groups in 1668, 1678-9, and 1694. In 1683 he was elected to the French Academy despite some resistance on account of his risqué verse tales drawn from Italian sources (Contes et nouvelles en vers, 1664). The fables were first translated into English in 1734; the three named translators included here, Arthur Bligh, Robert Thomson, and John Matthews, all have headnotes of their own. La Fontaine died in Paris on 13 Apr. 1695. (EB 21 Apr. 2025; OCFL) HJ
Other Names:
- Lafontaine