Jean de La Fontaine (in Pere Lachaise Cemetery)
N 48° 51.630 E 002° 23.707
31U E 455634 N 5412124
The most famous French fabulist and probably the most widely read French poet of the 17th century.
Waymark Code: WMTX5
Location: France
Date Posted: 10/11/2006
Views: 162
Jean de La Fontaine (July 8, 1621 – April 13, 1695) was born in Château-Thierry, Champagne, in central France, the son of a government official. In his youth he read such writers as François Rabelais (1494?-1553), François de Malherbe (1555-1628), and Honoré d'Urfé (1568-1625). He went to Paris to study medicine and theology, but was drawn to the whirls of social life. It was not until the end of his life that he became interested in religion: religious rituals bored him. La Fontaine was qualified as a lawyer but he returned home in 1647 and assisted his father, a superintendent of forests. He held a number of government posts, but they did not pay much money. In 1647 he married Marie Héricart, an heiress, but the marriage was unhappy and they separated in 1658. La Fontaine had decided to become a famous writer. La Fontaine spent his time in literary circles with Molière (1622-1673) and others. In 1658 he left his family and moved to Paris, where he lived his most productive years, devoting himself to writing.
La Fontaine had several patrons, among them Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), an influential statesman and the superintendent of finance, who was later arrested in 1661, accused of embezzlement and treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment - the young King, Louis XIV, was in favor of a death sentence. With the help of Fouquet, Fontaine received a small pension with easy terms: he had to write only four poems in a year. When Fouquet was imprisoned, La Fontaine wrote one of his most beautiful poems, asking mercy for his former patron. To avoid arrest, La Fontaine left Paris and spent some time in Limousin, from where he wrote letters to his wife.
From 1664 to 1672 La Fontaine served as a gentleman-in-waiting to the dowager duchess d'Orléans in Luxemburg, and from 1673 he was a member of the household of Mme de La Sabliere. In 1683 he was elected to the Academie Française in recognition of his contribution to French literature. In his welcome speech the director of the Académie told La Fontaine that he should now glory in the King and have "no other purpose than the eternity of his name." Thus in 1687 La Fontaine praised the King in a poem: "He wishes to conquer Error: the / work advances, / It is done; and the fruit of his / many successes / Is that the Truth reigns through / out France, / And France throughout the / universe."
Among La Fontaine's major works are CONTES ET NOUVELLES EN VERS (1664), a collection of tales borrowed from Italian sources, tales of Boccaccio, Rabelais, and other medieval and renaissance masters, and LES AMOURS DE PSYCHÉ ET DE CUPIDON (1669). The "Contes" often threatened to get La Fontaine in trouble with both Church and the Academie because of its daring content. The stories dealt with marital misdemeanors and love affairs and were not written for readers who blushed easily. They went through four editions during La Fontaine's lifetime, but the last edition was banned by the authorities because it was considered too obscene. Later La Fontaine regretted ever having written them.
His FABLES CHOISIES MISES EN VERS, usually called 'La Fontaine Fables', were published over the last 25 years of his life. The first volume appeared when the author was 47. The book includes some 240 poems and timeless stories of countryfolk, heroes from Greek mythology, and familiar beasts from the fables of Aesop, from which La Fontaine unhesitatingly borrowed his material. The last of his tales were published posthumously. Each tale has a moral - an instruction how to behave correctly or how life should be lived. In the second volume La Fontaine based his tales on stories from Asia and other places.
La Fontaine's fables were marked by his love of rural life and belief in ethical hedonism. They were widely translated and imitated during the 17th and 18th centuries all over Europe, and beyond. Read nowadays mainly by children - or by teachers for their classes - their original amoral attitude has been forgotten. This realistic side was still noticed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) who considered them unfit for pedagogy. In America, the tradition of the verse fable continued in Joel Chadler Harris' Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1880). At the age of 71 La Fontaine became ill, and he started to think seriously about his life. He translated the Psalms, wore a hair shirt, and again embraced Catholicism. This new role did not convince his friends, whom he had once convinced that pleasure is one's "primal and congenital good." La Fontaine died in Paris on April 13, 1695. Before his death La Fontaine was encouraged by his abbé to condemn publicly his indecent stories. "Stop tormenting him; he's much more stupid than wicked," said the writer's housekeeper, but La Fontaine obeyed the advice and also burned a comedy he had just composed.
Help yourself, and heaven will help you. (Fables 'Le Chartier Embourbe')
The reason of the strongest is always the best. (Fables 'Le Loup et l'Agneau')
A hungry stomach has no ears. (Fables 'Le Milan et le Rossignol)
In all matters one must consider the end. (Fables 'Le Renard et le Bouc')
In Fables choisier, mises en vers (Selected Fables, Set in Verse, 1668, 1678-16679, 1694) La Fontaine viewed life and society ironically. By means of animal symbols and witty dialogues, written in colloquial turns of speech, he examined different social types, ambitions, vices and virtues. However, La Fontaine's fables are not only meant for moral lessons, but also show the pleasure of telling and mastery of a great variety of tones. Animal figures gave La Fontaine enough freedom to distance himself from contemporary, inflammable issues.
Two of his most famous fables are The Tortoise and the Hare and The Raven and the Fox.
"WHAT a dull, heavy creature," says the Hare, "is this Tortoise!"
"And yet," says the Tortoise, "I'll run with you for a wager."
"Done," says the Hare, and then they asked the Fox to be the judge.
They started together, and the Tortoise kept jogging on still, till he came to the end of the course.
The Hare laid himself down midway and took a nap; "for," says he, "I can catch up with the Tortoise when I please."
But it seems he overslept himself, for when he came to wake, though he scudded away as fast as possible, the Tortoise had got to the post before him and won the wager.
Slow and Steady wins the race.
Description:
The most famous French fabulist and probably the most widely read French poet of the 17th century.
Date of birth: 07/08/1621
Date of death: 04/13/1695
Area of notoriety: Literature
Marker Type: Tomb (above ground)
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 09:00 - 17:30
Fee required?: No
Web site: Not listed
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