author
Robert Garnier
1544–1590
A major voice in French Renaissance drama, he wrote tragedies that brought classical form together with the violence and unrest of his own age. His plays were admired in their time and went on to influence later European theater, including the English stage.
1 Audiobook
A Discourse of Life and Death, by Mornay; and Antonius by Garnier
by seigneur du Plessis-Marly Philippe de Mornay, Robert Garnier
About the author
Born in La Ferté-Bernard around 1545, Robert Garnier studied law in Toulouse, where he won prizes in the famous jeux floraux poetry competition. He later worked as a lawyer and royal official in Le Mans, building a literary reputation alongside his legal career.
Garnier became one of the leading tragedians of 16th-century France. Drawing on classical models, especially Seneca, he wrote a series of tragedies and a tragicomedy, including Porcie, Cornélie, Marc Antoine, and Les Juives. His work is often seen as the high point of French humanist tragedy.
What makes his writing stand out is the way it joins formal, eloquent verse with the emotional strain of the French Wars of Religion. Even centuries later, he remains important as a bridge between classical drama and the later flowering of French and English tragic theater.