ISAAC DE

See also:

• ISAAC DE BENSERADE (1613—1691)

BENSERADE (1613—1691)  , French poet, was born in Paris, and baptized on the 5th of November 1613 . His family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres . He began his literary career with the tragedy of Cleopatra (1635), which was followed by four other in-different pieces . On Richelieu's death Benserade lost his pension, but became more and more a favourite at court, especially with Anne of Austria . He provided the words for the court ballets, and was, in 1674, admitted to the Academy, where he wielded an influence quite out of proportion to the merit of his work . In 1676 the failure of his Metamorphoses d'Ovide in the form of rondeaux gave a blow to his reputation, but by no means destroyed his vogue with his contemporaries . Benserade would probably be forgotten but for his sonnet on Job (1651) . This sonnet, which he sent to a young lady with his paraphrase on Job, having been placed in competition with the Urania of Voiture, a dispute on their relative merits long divided the whole court and the wits into two parties, styled respectively the Jobelins and the Uranists . The partisans of Benserade were headed by the prince de Conti and Mlle de Scudery, while Mme de Montausier and J . G. de Balzac took the side of Voiture . Some years before his death, on the loth of October 1691, Benserade retired to Chantilly, and devoted himself to a translation of the Psalms, which he nearly completed .