Gringore

Gringore, or GRINGOIRE, PIERRE, a favourite French poet under Louis XII. and Francis I., was born, perhaps at Caen, between 1475 and 1480, and early became known as a writer of moral and allegorical poems, next of satirical farces abounding in allusions to the social and political circumstances of the time. For the first twenty years of the 16th century he played the most important rôles in the theatrical society of 'Enfants sans Souci,' first as Mère-Sotte, next as Prince des Sots; and as such was active in the production and representation of pantomimic satirical farces. He is an important figure in literary history as one of the creators of the French political comedy. He abused the enemies of Louis XII., and thus found cover for his freedoms against the vices of the nobility, the clergy, and even the sacred person of the pope himself. In later life he entered the service of the Duke of Lorraine as a herald, and confined his muse to religious poetry alone. He died in 1544. The most important among his pieces are Le Jeu du Prince des Sots (1511), directed especially against Pope Julius II.; Les folles Entreprises, a series of half allegorical monologues aimed at the chief existing grievances in church and state; Les Entreprises de Venise, and La Chasse du Cerf des Cerfs, both political, the title even of the latter being but a dimly-veiled allusion to Pope Julius (Servus servorum Dei); and the famous Mystère de Monseigneur Saint Loys, written about 1524. Gringore's works have been edited by Héricault, Montaiglon, and Rothschild (4 vols. 1858–77). He is the chief figure in a comedy of Banville's, but his description in Hugo's Notre Dame must not be taken as historical. See Picot, Pierre Gringore (Paris, 1878), and another work by Badel (Nancy, 1893).