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JEAN VAUQUELIN DE LA FRESNAYE (1536-1608)
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VAUQUELIN DE LA FRESNAYE, JEAN (1536-1608), French poet, was born at the chateau of La Fresnaye, near Falaise in Normandy, in 1536. He studied the humanities at Paris and law at Poitiers and Bourges. He fought in the civil wars under Marshal Matignon and was wounded at the siege of Saint-L8 (1574). Most of his life was spent at Caen, where he was president, and he died there in 16o8. La Fresnaye was a disciple of Ronsard, but, while praising the reforms of the Pleiade, he laid stress on the continuity of French literary history. He was a student of the trouveres and the old chroniclers, and desired to see French poetry set on a national basis. These views he expounded in an Art poetique, begun at the desire of Henry III. in 1574, but not published until 16o5. His Foresteries appeared in 1555; his Diverses poesies, including the Art poetique, the Satyres francoises, addressed to various dis-