TRISTAN L'HERMITE

born c. 1601, , La Marche, France died Sept. 7, 1655, Paris pseudonym of Franois L'hermite dramatist and poet, one of the creators of French classical drama. Long overshadowed by his contemporary Pierre Corneille, he was rediscovered in the late 19th century and continues to excite scholarly and critical interest. At the age of 11, Tristan was attached as page to the Marquise of Verneuil but was exiled to England after a duel. This incident and his vagabond life in the years that followed are described in his autobiographical novel Le Page disgraci (1643; The Disgraced Page). Tristan remained in England until his pardon by Louis XIII in 1621; but it is unlikely, as has been suggested, that his work was influenced by that of William Shakespeare. Like all French classical dramatists, he explores Greco-Roman or Oriental and biblical themes: Mariamne (1636), his best-known tragedy, is the story of Herod's jealousy; this and La mort de Snque (1644; The Death of Seneca) were successful. Tristan was the first to write French tragedies in which love is central to the action. Ill health had deprived Tristan of a military career, but he led an adventurous life nonetheless; brave, easily angered, with a free, inquisitive mind, he gambled away his wealth and died in poverty.