author
baron de Hilaire Bernard de Requeleyne Longepierre
1659–1721
A French playwright and translator of the classical world, he built his reputation on polished tragedies drawn from Greek themes. His work reflects the taste for antiquity that shaped literary life in late seventeenth-century France.
1 Audiobook
Médée: tragédie
by baron de Hilaire Bernard de Requeleyne Longepierre
About the author
Born in Dijon on October 18, 1659, and later active in Paris, he was a French dramatist best known as the baron de Longepierre. He wrote in the period after Racine and turned strongly toward ancient Greek models, aiming for an elegant, learned style.
Alongside his plays, he translated poets including Anacreon, Sappho, Bion, and Moschus, which helped define him as a writer deeply engaged with classical literature. Among his dramatic works, Médée is the title most often associated with him, and his career also included service as secretary to the duc de Berry.
He died in Paris on March 30, 1721. Today he is remembered less as a major innovator than as a refined representative of the French classical tradition and its lasting fascination with Greece and Rome.