Moréas, Jean (1856–1910)

Greek-born French poet and novelist. His acquaintance with Paul Verlaine inclined him in earlier work such as Le Pèlerin passionné/The Passionate Pilgrim 1891 to the Symbolist school. Subsequently, believing Symbolism to have no enduring literary quality, he became the founder and leader of the neoclassical Ecole Romane, whose ambition was to rival La Pléiade, and turned to the old medieval-romantic style. His best work reverts to the classical precision of Malherbe and Corneille, and includes Iphigénie à Aulis/Iphegenia in Aulis 1903, a tragedy, and Les Stances/The Stanzas 1899–1927.