Jean de La Taille

Jean de La Taille (c.1540 - c.1607) was a French poet and dramatist born in Bondaroy.

He studied the humanities in Paris under Muretus, and law at Orléans under Anne de Bourg. He began his career as a Huguenot, but afterwards adopted a mild Catholicism. He was wounded at the Battle of Arnay-le Duc in 1570, and retired to his estate at Bondaroy, where he wrote a political pamphlet entitled Histoire abrégée des singeries de la ligue. His chief poem is a satire on the follies of court life, Le Courtisan retiré; he also wrote a political poem, Le Prince Nécessaire. But his fame rests on his achievements in drama. In 1572 appeared the tragedy of Saül le furieux, with a preface on L'Art de la tragédie. He wrote, not for the general public to which the mysteries and farces had addressed themselves, but for the limited audience of a lettered aristocracy. He therefore depreciated the native drama and insisted on the Senecan model. He objected to deaths on the stage on the ground that the representation is unconvincing.