DESHOULIRES, ANTOINETTE DU LIGIER DE LA GARDE

born Jan. 1, 1638, Paris, Fr. died Feb. 17, 1694, Paris French poet who, from 1672 until her death, presided over a salon that was a meeting place for the prominent literary figures of her day. She was also a leader of the coterie that attacked Jean Racine's Phdre. Deshoulires's poems, the first of which were published in the Mercure Galant in 1672, were appreciated throughout the 18th century, her idylls and eclogues being especially popular. Her early poems celebrate the simple joys of nature and mark the small and large events in the lives of French royalty. Her later poems describe her sufferings from old age, cancer, and poverty; these works have endured. In addition to poems, Deshoulires wrote an opera, Zoroastre (1680), and two tragedies, Jules-Antoine and Gensric (1680); the latter was at one time attributed to the Duke of Nevers.