Boileau Despréaux, Nicolas (1636–1711)

French poet and critic. After a series of contemporary satires, his ‘Epîtres/Epistles’ (1669–77) led to his joint appointment with the dramatist Jean Racine as royal historiographer in 1677. Later works include L'Art poétique/The Art of Poetry (1674) and the mock-heroic Le Lutrin/The Lectern (1674–83).

Boileau was born in Paris, studied theology and then law at the Sorbonne, and became a barrister 1656, but later turned to literature. A close friend of Racine, Molière, and La Fontaine, he was elected to the French Academy 1684.

The principles of literary criticism laid down in his satires and restated in L'Art poétique are based on those of classical antiquity. Although L'Art poétique is considered by modern scholars to be a statement of views current at the time rather than an expression of original ideas of his own, Boileau's influence in the 18th century was nevertheless considerable.