[1] The only other English sense is that of a printer's workshop, or
the body of compositors in it, who are presided over by a "father of
the chapel."
CHAPELAIN, JEAN (1595-1674), French poet and man of letters, the son of
a notary, was born in Paris on the 4th of December 1595. His father
destined him for his own profession; but his mother, who had known
Ronsard, had determined otherwise. At an early age Chapelain began to
qualify himself for literature, learning, under Nicolas Bourbon, Greek
and Latin, and teaching himself Italian and Spanish. Having finished his
studies, he was engaged for a while in teaching Spanish to a young
nobleman. He was then appointed tutor to the two sons of a M. de la
Trousse, grand provost of France. Attached for the next seventeen years
to the family of this gentleman, the administration of whose fortune was
wholly in his hands, he seems to have published nothing during this
period, yet to have acquired a great reputation as a probability. His
first work given to the public was a preface for the _Adone_ of Marini,
who printed and published that notorious poem at Paris. This was
followed by an excellent translation of Mateo Aleman's novel, _Guzman de
Alfarache_, and by four extremely indifferent odes, one of them
addressed to Richelieu. The credit of introducing the law of the
dramatic unities into French literature has been claimed for many
writers, and especially for the Abbe d'Aubignac, whose _Pratique du
theatre_ appeared in 1657. The theory had of course been enunciated in
the _Art poetique_ of J.C. Scaliger in 1561, and subsequently by other
writers, but there is no doubt that it was the action of Chapelain that
transferred it from the region of theory to that of actual practice. In
a conversation with Richelieu in about 1632, reported by the abbe
d'Olivet, Chapelain maintained that it was indispensable to maintain the
unities of time, place and action, and it is explicitly stated that the
doctrine was new to the cardinal and to the poets who were in his pay.
French classical drama thus owes the riveting of its fetters to
Chapelain. Rewarded with a pension of a thousand crowns, and from the
first an active member of the newly-constituted Academy, Chapelain drew
up the plan of the grammar and dictionary the compilation of which was
to be a principal function of the young institution, and at Richelieu's
command drew up the _Sentiments de l'Academie sur le Cid_. In 1656 he
published, in a magnificent form, the first twelve cantos of his
celebrated epic _La Pucelle_,[1] on which he had been engaged during
twenty years. Six editions of the poem were disposed of in eighteen
months. But this was the end of the poetic reputation of Chapelain, "the
legist of Parnassus". Later the slashing satire of Boileau (in this case
fairly master of his subject) did its work, and Chapelain ("_Le plus
grand poete Francais qu' ait jamais ete et du plus solide jugement_," as
he is called in Colbert's list) took his place among the failures of
modern art.
Chapelain's reputation as a critic survived this catastrophe, and in
1663 he was employed by Colbert to draw up an account of contemporary
men of letters, destined to guide the king in his distribution of
pensions. In this pamphlet, as in his letters, he shows to far greater
advantage than in his unfortunate epic. His prose is incomparably better
than his verse; his criticisms are remarkable for their justice and
generosity; his erudition and kindliness of heart are everywhere
apparent; the royal attention is directed alike towards the author's
firmest friends and bitterest enemies. To him young Racine was indebted
not only for kindly and seasonable counsel, but also for that pension of
six hundred livres which was so useful to him. The catholicity of his
taste is shown by his _De la lecture des vieux romans_ (pr. 1870), in
which he praises the _chansons de geste_, forgotten by his generation.
Chapelain refused many honours, and his disinterestedness in this and
other cases makes it necessary to receive with caution the stories of
Menage and Tallemant des Reaux, who assert that he was in his old age a
miser, and that a considerable fortune was found hoarded in his
apartments when he died on the 22nd of February 1674.
There is a very favourable estimate of Chapelain's merits as a critic
in George Saintsbury's _History of Criticism_, ii. 256-261. An
analysis of _La Pucelle_ is given in pp. 23-79 of Robert Southey's
_Joan of Arc_. See also _Les Lettres de Jean Chapelain_ (ed. P.
Tanuzey de Larroque, 1880-1882); _Lettres inedites ... a P.D. Huet_
(1658-1673, ed. by L.G. Pellissier, 1894); Julien Duchesne, _Les
Poemes epiques du XVIIe siecle_ (1870); the abbe A. Fabre, _Les
Ennemis de Chapelain_ (1888), _Chapelain et nos deux premieres
Academies_ (1890); and A. Muehlan,_ Jean Chapelain_ (1893).