Pierre Gringoire

Pierre Gringore [pjɛːʁ ɡʁɛ̃ɡwɑʁ] (1475? – 1538) was a popular French poet and playwright. He was born in Normandy, at Thury-Harcourt, but the exact date and place of his death are unknown. His first work was Le Chasteau de Labour (1499), an allegorical poem.

From 1506 to 1512, he worked as an actor-manager and playwright in Paris. He is best known for the satirical plays he wrote during this period for the Confrérie des Enfants Sans Souci or Sots, a famous comedic acting troupe. While in Paris he became a favorite of Louis XII, who employed the troupe to poke fun at the papacy. Tension between France and Rome was building during this period, eventually resulting in the Italian Wars and the formation of the Catholic League in 1511. Gringore wrote several scathing indictments of Pope Julius II, for example, La Chasse du cerf des cerfs (1510) and the trilogy Le Jeu du Prince des Sots et Mère Sotte.

Following his Parisian period, he wrote a mystery play about Louis IX, Vie Monseigneur Sainct Loys par personnaiges (1514), for the Paris guild of masons and carpenters. Some scholars consider this to be his masterpiece.

After Francis I took the throne, he put severe restrictions on plays and playwrights in place. Gringore moved to Lorraine in 1518, where he married Catherine Roger.

Despite the various works in which he attacked the papacy, Gringore was a devout Catholic. One of his later works, Blazon des hérétiques (1524) attacks heretics and leaders of the Protestant Reformation, up to and including Martin Luther.

A loosely fictionalized vision of Gringoire appears as an important character in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He is probably best known from Hugo's book, in which he was inspired by and bears some resemblance to the historical Gringoire. He did not appear in Disney's 1996 animated film adaptation or its 2002 straight-to-video sequel. In the first film, his character is combined with the character of Captain Phoebus.

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