Georges de Brébeuf

Georges de Brébeuf (1618 - 1661) was a French poet and translator best known for his verse translation of Lucan's Pharsalia (1654) which was warmly received by Pierre Corneille, but which was ridiculed by Nicolas Boileau in his Art poétique.

Georges de Brébeuf was born into an illustrious Norman family, most likely at Torigni-sur-Vire, Manche. One of his ancestors had followed William the Conqueror into England, and he was himself the nephew of the Jesuit missionary to Canada Jean de Brébeuf (who was later made a saint after his death at the hands of the Iroquois). He studied in Caen and Paris (where he met Blaise Pascal) and became preceptor to the future Marshall de Bellefonds (1641), then moved to Rouen, to hold a religious benefice.

His early poetry participated in the so-called "précieuses" movement and is considered on a par with the works of Vincent Voiture and Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac. He became friends with Valentin Conrart, Gilles Ménage, Jean Chapelain, François-Eudes de Mézeray and Pierre Corneille; he wrote poetry on demand; and he gained a reputation for his playful, elegant and ironic poems (such as his Gageure or Epigrammes contre une femme fardée, 150 epigrams and madrigals against a woman wearing make-up) and his skill with vers libre (free verse). He also wrote works in a burlesque vein, much like Paul Scarron, in his baroque parodies of Virgil's Aeneid and Lucan's Pharsalia.

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