Vair, Guillaume du (1556–1621)

French orator and philosopher. A supporter of Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV), he made his name as an orator with such speeches as Exhortation à la paix/An Exhortation to Peace (1592). He served in a number of important government posts, and in 1616 became lord chancellor and bishop of Lisieux. His influential treatises on religion and philosophy were strongly influenced by Stoicism.

Vair first came to prominence with his oration on the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. His writings include the treatises De la Sainte Philosophie/Sacred Philosophy and De la Philosophie morale des Stoïques/The Moral Philosophy of the Stoics, translations of Epictetus and Demosthenes, and the Traité de la constance et consolation ès calamités publiques (1593; translated into English as A Buckler against Adversitie in 1622), which applies the philosophy of Stoicism to the Christian faith.

Du Vair's influence can be traced in the poems of his contemporary Malherbe and in the works of the French philosophers of the 17th century.