HEROET, ANTOINE

born 1492?, Paris died 1568, Digne, Fr. byname La Maison-neuve Renaissance court poet whose works are representative of the amalgam of Platonism and Christian humanism that produced the modern concept of Platonic love. A member of the court surrounding Margaret of Angoulme, sister of Francis I and later queen of Navarre, Hrot is chiefly known for his La Parfaicte Amye (1542), a subtle, mystical monologue exalting as man's ultimate happiness a love in which the perfect lover seeks spiritual union with his lady. The poem was written as a reply to the cynical L'Amye de court by Bertrand de La Borderie, which ridiculed the superficial attitudes of women at court. Hrot imitated Plato's Symposium in explaining the mystery of the origin of love in his poem L'Androgyne (written 1536; published 1542).