Nicolas des Escuteaux (or the "sieur des Escuteaux", sometimes written "Escuteaus"; after 1570 – c. 1628) was a French novelist from the early 17th century.

Life

He was born into a noble family in the region around

Loudun Loudun (; ; Poitevin: ''Loudin'') is a commune in the Vienne department and the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France. It is located south of the town of Chinon and 25 km to the east of the town Thouars. The area south of Loudun is ...

The Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was strong in Loudun, and in terms of religion, Des Escuteaux seems to have been somewhat sympathetic toward the

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...

Works

He was responsible for 13 novels of love and adventure and one anthology published between 1601 and 1628. Like his contemporaries Antoine de Nervèze and François du Souhait, Des Escuteaux is one of the authors most often associated with the so-called "sentimental novel" (or "amours") published during the reign of

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

. Unlike these other authors, Des Escuteaux was not a prince's secretary and he apparently only worked on novels and not on plays or works of moral philosophy. The first five novels by Des Escuteaux were dedicated to noble ladies, but it is unsure to what degree he profited from their patronage. These ladies were: Renée de Cossé, who was the daughter of Artus de Cossé, the wife of Charles of Montmorency and the cousin of Charles II de Cossé, duc de Brissac; Isabel de Rochechoüart (dame de Lesé); Lucrèce de Boüillé (mademoiselle de Créance); Jeanne de la Brunetière (dame de Vaudoré); and Catherine de Mars (comtesse douairière de Caravas). The publication of Nervèze's first novels preceded Des Escuteaux's by two or three years, as too Nervèze's anthology of short novels, but judging from the number of editions and places of publication, it seems that Des Escuteaux's novels had a longer period of success than Nervèze's. Many of Des Escuteaux's novels are more adventurous (pirates, kidnappings, battles) than sentimental, and they clearly show the influence of the Renaissance Hispano-Portuguese adventure novel (like '' Amadis of Gaul'') and the ancient Greek novel (like those of

Heliodorus of Emesa Heliodorus Emesenus or Heliodorus of Emesa ( grc, Ἡλιόδωρος ὁ Ἐμεσηνός) is the author of the ancient Greek novel called the ''Aethiopica'' () or ''Theagenes and Chariclea'' (), which has been dated to the 220s or 370s AD. Ide ...

and

Achilles Tatius Achilles Tatius (Greek: Ἀχιλλεὺς Τάτιος, ''Achilleus Tatios'') of Alexandria was a Roman-era Greek writer of the 2nd century AD whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel, or ''romance'', '' The Adve ...

). Occasionally however, Des Escuteaux abandons the adventurous tradition for more realistic situations, such as portraying Italian courtly marriage alliances (''Clarimond et Antonide'') or the impact of the unintended killing of an uncle on the family of the beloved (''Lydiam et Floriande''). Des Escuteaux's novels take place in a variety of far-flung settings and historical periods (including in France during the reign of

Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...

, the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

under the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area bet ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

and

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, and the Eastern coast of

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(

Sofala Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. It was founded by Somali merchants. This name ...

)) and generally feature a sublimely beautiful virgin lady (whose beauty drives men crazy) and a noble knight who is trying to rescue her. Des Escuteaux has many passages showing the first tender moments of the lovers' self-discovery and revelation of their feelings, but he also revels in having his chaste female characters fighting back the libidinous attentions of their kidnappers. In a few of his novels, Des Escuteaux abandons the idealized portrait of his female characters and portrays them as flighty, vicious or cruel (vain and avaricious mothers who seek socially advantageous marriages for their daughters are a preferred target of his criticism). In the first half of the 17th century, Des Escuteaux was often grouped with Nervèze by critics (such as Charles Sorel) who decried their stylized, rhetorically ornate and metaphoric language, but he is an essential figure in the development of language (prefiguring the

Précieuses The French literary style called ''préciosité'' (, ''preciousness'') arose in the 17th century from the lively conversations and playful word games of ''les précieuses'' (), the intellectual, witty and educated women who frequented the salo ...

) and the novel in France and had a direct influence on

Madeleine de Scudéry Madeleine de Scudéry (15 November 1607 – 2 June 1701), often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French writer. Her works also demonstrate such comprehensive knowledge of ancient history that it is suspected she had received inst ...

and other novelists in the 1640s. Des Escuteaux novels: *''Les infortunées et chastes amours de Filiris et Isolia'' (Rouen, 1601), (Paris, 1607) *''Les chastes et heureuses amours de Clarimond et Antonide'' (Paris, 1601, printed in Saumur), (Rouen, 1602) *''Les avantureuses fortunes d'Ipsilis et Alixée'' (Poitiers, 1602), (Rouen, 1604) - see below for the sequel and the conclusion *''Les véritables et heureuses amours de Clidamant et Marilinde'' (Paris, 1603), (Rouen, 1603), (Saumur, 1603) *''Les amours de Lydiam et Floriande'' (Paris, 1605) *''La Suite des avantureuses fortunes d'Ipsilis et Alixée'' (Paris, 1605) *''Amours diverses'' (an anthology of the first four novels) (Rouen, 1607), (Rouen, 1613), (Paris, 1617) *''Les malheureuses amours de Philandre gentilhomme Bourguignon: et de Chrisilde damoiselle Grecque'' (Paris, 1611) *''Les traversez hasards de Clidion et Arminie'' (Paris, 1612) *''Les dmirablesfaits d'armes d'Alcestes servant l'infidèle Lydie'' (Saumur, 1613) *''Le ravissement de Clarinde'' (Rouen, 1617), (Poitiers, 1618), (Rouen, 1627) *''Les fortunes d'Almintes'' (Saumur, 1623) *''Fin des avantureuses fortunes d'Ypsilis et Alixée'' (Poitiers, 1623) *''Les jaloux desdains de Chrysis'' (Poitiers, 1628)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Escuteaux, Nicolas des 1570s births 1628 deaths 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French novelists French male novelists