Jean Mairet
Mairet, Jean (1604-86). French dramatist. Born in Besançon, Mairet began his education there, and later studied in Paris. As a young man he became attached to the household of the duc de Montmorency, which led to friendship with Théophile de Viau, also protected by Montmorency, while the Italian duchesse de Montmorency encouraged an interest in Italian drama. Mairet wrote 12 plays (including tragedy, tragicomedy, comedy, and pastoral). All were composed quite early in his long life, his last play (Sidonie) being performed c.1637. His second play, the pastoral tragicomedy La Sylvie (performed probably 1626, published 1628), was one of the most successful in that mode, and in its setting and characters is typical of the genre, although with some distinctive features such as a magical element in the plot and, in the third scene, a celebrated 80-line dialogue in cross-rhymed couplets between the shepherdess heroine Sylvie and an unwanted suitor.
Another pastoral tragicomedy, La Silvanire (performed 1630, published 1631) was in its published form accompanied by a preface in which Mairet recommends, on grounds of vraisemblance and contemporary taste, the adoption of the unities of action, time, and place. He writes with particular reference to comedy, although indicating at several points that the same ‘conditions’ apply to tragedy. Three years later his tragedy Sophonisbe (1634) reintroduced regular tragedy to France, respecting both the unities and bienséance. The subject had been treated by others and was later to be used by Corneille and Voltaire. In Mairet's version Syphax, the elderly husband of the Numidian queen Sophonisbe, is conveniently killed between Acts I and II, in battle against the Romans' Numidian ally, Massinissa. Sophonisbe immediately marries Massinissa, and both hope that he will be able to protect her from the Romans. Sophonisbe takes poison (the gift of Massinissa) to escape captivity, expressing noble defiance, and Massinissa commits suicide over her body. Mairet comments in the dedication of the play that audiences were moved to tears by the lovers' deaths.
Mairet was very active in the Querelle du Cid; indeed, he launched the Querelle by an offensive poem addressed to Corneille in the voice of the Spanish author of Corneille's source. Perhaps it was Corneille's growing reputation (particularly after Horace, performed 1640) that caused Mairet to abandon the theatre. He became a diplomat, representing the Franche-Comté at the French court, and eventually retired to Besançon.
— Gillian Jondorf
Bibliography
- G. Dotoli, “‘Statut du héros de Jean Mairet’”, in M. de Rougemont et al. (eds.), Dramaturgies, langages dramatiques: mélanges pour Jacques Scherer (1986)
