François de La Mothe Le Vayer (, August 15889 May 1672), was a French writer who was known to use the pseudonym Orosius Tubero. He was admitted to the Académie française in 1639, and was the tutor of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

Early years

Le Vayer was born and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, a member of a noble family of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

. His father was an avocat at the parlement of Paris and author of a curious treatise on the functions of ambassadors, entitled ''Legatus, seu De legatorum privilegiis, officio et munere libellus'' (1579) and illustrated mainly from ancient history. Francois succeeded his father at the parlement, but gave up his post about 1647 and devoted himself to travel and ''

belles lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...

''.

Literary career

His ''Considérations sur l'éloquence française'' (1638) procured him admission to the Académie française, and his ''De l'instruction de Mgr. le Dauphin'' (1640) attracted the attention of Richelieu. In 1649

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 un ...

entrusted him with the education of her second son and subsequently with the completion of

's education, which had been very much neglected. The outcome of his pedagogic labors was a series of books comprising the ''Géographie, Rhétorique, Morale, Economique, Politique, Logique, and Physique du prince'' (1651–1658). The king rewarded his tutor by appointing him historiographer of France and councillor of state. La Mothe Le Vayer inherited of Marie de Gournay's library, itself transmitted from Michel de Montaigne. Modest, sceptical, and occasionally obscene in his Latin pieces and in his verses, he made himself a persona grata at the French court, where

libertinism A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour o ...

in ideas and morals was hailed with relish. Besides his educational works, he wrote ''Jugement sur les anciens et principaux historiens grecs et latins'' (1646); a treatise entitled ''Du peu de certitude qu'il y a en histoire'' (1668), which in a sense marks the beginning of historical criticism in France; and sceptical ''Dialogues'', published posthumously under the pseudonym of Orasius Tubero. An incomplete edition of his works was published at Dresden in 1756–1759. He was instrumental is popularizing

Skepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

and

Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus ( grc-gre, Σέξτος Ἐμπειρικός, ; ) was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher and Empiric school physician. His philosophical works are the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman Pyrrhonism, and bec ...

in particular whom he called "the divine Sexte" (a near blasphemy in Catholic France at the time of the Sun-King, which cost him a higher office of State).

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

was his close friend and it is rumored that much of the iconoclastic satire of his plays were inspired by Le Vayer's erudite and savage (if carefully hidden) criticism of religious hypocrisy - as expressed in the second version of his masterpiece ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; french: Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur, ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical thea ...

'' (1667) — which (according to Robert McBride) La Mothe Le Vayer defended in a caustic and anonymous ''Lettre sur la comédie de l'Imposteur'' (1667) against the religious faction at Louis XIV's court.McBride, ''Moliere Et Son Premier Tartuffe'' (Manchester University Press, 2005), Michel Foucault used this work as an important material in his famous essay "

Governmentality Governmentality is a concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège de France during this time. Governmenta ...

Notes

References

* Recent edition of selected critical treatises: * ''De la patrie et des étrangers et autres petits traités sceptiques'', ed.

Philippe-Joseph Salazar Philippe-Joseph Salazar (), a French rhetorician and philosopher, was born on 10 February 1955 in Casablanca, then part of French Morocco. Salazar attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand a prestigious secondary-school in Paris (founded 1563) before ...

, Paris: Desjonquères, 2003. * Robert McBride, ''Lettre sur la comedie de l'Imposteur'', attributed to Le Vayer. Durham: University of Durham Press, 1994.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:La Mothe-Le-Vayer, Francois De 1588 births 1672 deaths Writers from Paris French philosophers 17th-century philosophers 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers Members of the Académie Française French male non-fiction writers