Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (November 1, 1636 – March 13, 1711) is a French poet and critic.
Boileau does much to reform the prevailing form of French poetry, as Blaise Pascal did to reform the prose.
He is greatly influenced by Horace.
The surname "Despréaux" was derived from a small property at Crosne near Villeneuve-Saint-Georges.
He was the fifteenth child of Gilles Boileau, a clerk in the parlement.
Two of his brothers attain some distinction: Gilles Boileau, the author of a translation of Epictetus; and Jacques Boileau, who becomes a canon of the Sainte-Chapelle, and makes valuable contributions to church history.
His mother dies when he is two years old; and Nicolas Boileau, who has a delicate constitution, seems to have suffered something from want of care.
Sainte-Beuve puts down his somewhat hard and unsympathetic outlook quite as much to the uninspiring circumstances of these days as to the general character of his time.
He cannot be said to have been early disenchanted, for he never seems to have had any illusions; he grew up with a single passion, "the hatred of stupid books."
Educated at the Collège de Beauvais, he is then sent to study theology at the Sorbonne.
He exchanges theology for law, however, and is called to the bar on December 4, 1656.
From the profession of law, after a short trial, he recois in disgust, complaining bitterly of the amount of chicanery which passes under the name of law and justice.
His father dies in 1657, leaving him a small fortune, and thenceforward he devotes himself to letters.
