author
baron de Hilaire Bernard de Requeleyne Longepierre
1659–1721
A French dramatist of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, he was known for bringing classical subjects to the stage with a learned, formal style. His best-known work is Médée, a tragedy that helped keep Greek myth alive in French theater.
1 Audiobook
Médée: tragédie
by baron de Hilaire Bernard de Requeleyne Longepierre
About the author
Born in Dijon in 1659, the baron de Longepierre was a French playwright and man of letters who wrote during the era shaped by classicism. He is generally identified as Hilaire-Bernard de Requeleyne, baron de Longepierre, and is especially remembered for tragedies drawn from ancient themes.
He was admired in his time for his learning and for his attachment to the literary ideals of the ancients. Alongside his dramatic writing, he was also associated with translation and scholarly literary culture, which helps explain the formal, classical tone of his work.
Today, he is most often encountered through Médée, first performed in the 1690s, and through his place in the long tradition of French writers who reworked Greek and Roman material for the stage. Sources consulted agree on his birth year, 1659, while some reference pages differ on his year of death; many library and English-language sources give 1721.