author
Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines
d. 1652
A lively figure of 17th-century French letters, this playwright, novelist, and actor moved between the stage and the page with unusual ease. Writing under the name Desfontaines, he left behind a varied body of work that reflects the energy of early modern theater.
4 Audiobooks
La vraye suitte du Cid Tragi-comédie représentée par la troupe royale
by Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines
Eurimedon: L'illustre pirate
by Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines
L'illustre comédien, ou Le martyre de Sainct Genest
by Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines
L'illustre Olympie, ou Le St Alexis: Tragedie
by Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines
About the author
Born around 1610 in Rouen and died on February 4, 1652, in Angers, Nicolas Mary—better known as sieur Desfontaines—was a French actor, dramatist, and novelist. He is sometimes listed as Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines, but library records also identify him as Nicolas Mary, which appears to be the more firmly documented name.
He was a notably prolific writer. Sources describe him as the author of numerous stage works, including tragedies and tragicomedies, and modern library catalogs preserve titles such as Alcidiane ou les Quatre rivaux and L'Inceste innocent. His reputation today rests mainly on his place in 17th-century French theater, where he worked at the crossroads of performance and literary writing.
Because the surviving biographical record is fairly brief, much of his life remains in the background. Even so, the outline is clear: Desfontaines belonged to the busy world of French theatrical culture in the decades before the high classical age fully took shape, and his work offers a glimpse of that rich, transitional moment.