Paul Scarron

Paul Scarron (Paris, 1610–Paris, 1660) was a French poet, dramatist and novelist of the Baroque period, known for satirical and burlesque writing. He is remembered today above all for The Comic Romance, one of the earliest French novels about a troupe of travelling actors.

The son of a Paris magistrate, he took minor holy orders as a young man but lived in a way that was little suited to clerical discipline. From 1632 to 1640 he stayed in Le Mans, in the circle of Bishop Charles de Beaumanoir, and mixed in provincial literary salons. Around 1638 he fell ill with a rheumatic condition whose cause is disputed: older accounts blamed a dip in a swamp or a carnival prank, while some modern readers suspect polio. Either way, his body became twisted and his legs paralysed, and he spent the rest of his life in pain, relying on a wheelchair and opium.

Back in Paris, he published a collection of burlesque verses in 1643 that set off a vogue for playful poetry. His comedies drew on Spanish models, and his travesty of the Aeneid was hugely popular in his lifetime, though its reputation later faded. His best-regarded work, The Comic Romance, appeared in two parts in 1651 and 1657. It follows a company of strolling players on the road, with inset tales that recall Greek romance and Cervantes. He died before writing the planned third part.

In 1652 he married Françoise d'Aubigné, a penniless young woman who later became Madame de Maintenon and the second wife of Louis XIV. His house in the Marais drew courtiers. His legacy lies in his lively picaresque comedy of the road and in the glimpse his novel gives of the theatre world around Molière.