| Mellin De Saint-gelais |
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| 1491 births | |
| 1558 deaths | |
| french poets | |
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Mellin de Saint-Gelais (or ''Melin de Saint-Gelays'' ; ca. 1490 - October, 1558 ) was a French Poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I Of France . LIFE He was born at Angoulême , most likely the natural son of Jean de Saint-Gelais, marquis de Montlieu, a member of the Angoumois gentry. His forename was the French-Norman Malapropism of the British wizard Merlin featured in Arthurian Legends . He was close to his uncle Octavien De Saint-Gelais (1466-1502), afterwards Bishop of Angoulême, himself a poet who had translated the '' Aeneid '' into French . Melin, who had studied at Bologna and Padua , had the reputation of being doctor, Astrologer and musician as well as poet. He returned to France around 1523 , and soon gained favour at the court of the art-loving Valois ruler Francis I by his skill in light verse. He was made almoner to the Dauphin , abbot of Reclus in the diocese of Troyes and librarian to the king at Blois . He enjoyed immense popularity until the appearance of Joachim Du Bellay 's ''Défense et illustration...'' in 1549 , where Saint-Gelais was not excepted from the scorn poured on contemporary poets. He attempted to ridicule the innovators by reading aloud the ''Odes'' of Pierre De Ronsard with burlesque emphasis before Henry II , when the king's sister, Marguerite De Valois , seized the book and read them herself. Ronsard accepted Saint-Gelais's apology for this incident, but Du Bellay satirized the offender in the ''Poète courtisan''. He translated (perhaps in collaboration with François Habert ), the " Sophonisbe " of Trissino (1524) which was represented in 1556 before Catherine De Medici at Blois. Saint-Gelais was the champion of the ''style marotique'' (see Clément Marot ) and the earliest of French Sonnet eers. He died in Paris in 1558. REFERENCES
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