SIEUR DU PARC ET DE MARIN LE

ROY

See also:

• SIEUR DU PARC ET DE MARIN LE ROY GOMBERVILLE (1600—1674)

GOMBERVILLE (1600—1674)  , French novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Paris in 1600 . At fourteen years of age he wrote a volume of verse, at twenty a Discours sur l'histoire and at twenty-two a pastoral, La Carithee, which is really a novel . The persons in it, though still disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses, represent real persons for whose identification the author himself provides a key . This was followed by a more ambitious attempt, Polexandre (5 vols . 1632—1637) . The hero wanders through the world in search of the island home of the princess Alcidiane . It contains much history and geography; the travels of Polexandre extending to such unexpected places as Benin, the Canary Islands, Mexico and the Antilles, and incidentally we learn all that was then known of Mexican history . Cytheree (4 vols.) appeared in 163o—1642, and in 1651 the Jeune Alcidiane, intended to undo any harm the earlier novels may have done, for Gomberville became a Jansenist and spent the last twenty-five years of his life in pious retirement . He was one of the earliest and most energetic members of the Academy . He died in Paris on the 14th of June 1674 .