Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulieres
(born Jan. 1, 1638,
Paris
, Fr.?died Feb. 17, 1694, Paris) was a French poet who, from 1672 until her death, presided over a salon that was a meeting place for the prominent literary figures of her day. She was also a leader of the
coterie
that attacked
Jean Racine’s
Phedre
.
Deshoulieres’s poems, the first of which were published in the
Mercure Galant
in 1672, were appreciated throughout the 18th century, her idylls and eclogues being especially popular. Her early poems celebrate the simple joys of nature and mark the small and large events in the lives of French royalty. Her later poems describe her sufferings from
old age
, cancer, and poverty; these works have endured. In addition to poems, Deshoulieres wrote an opera,
Zoroastre
(1680), and two tragedies,
Jules-Antoine
and
Genseric
(1680); the latter was at one time attributed to the Duke of Nevers.
Britannica Quiz
A Study of Poetry