Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (February 11, 1568 - June 1, 1625), French novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Marseilles, and was educated at the Collège de Tournon. February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events March 23 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... Events March 27 - Prince Charles Stuart becomes King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Marseilles redirects here. ...

A partisan of the League, he was taken prisoner in 1595, and, though soon set at liberty, he was again captured and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he read Ronsard, Petrarch and above all the Diana enamorada of Jorge de Montemayor and Tasso's Aminta. After the defeat of the Leage in 1594, d'Urfé emigrated to Savoy whose duke was a relative of his mother. Here, he wrote the Epîtres morales (1598). Pierre de Ronsard, commonly referred to as Ronsard (September 11, 1524 - December, 1585), was a French poet and prince of poets (as his own generation in France called him). ... From the c. ... Jorge de Montemayor (or Montemor) (1520? - February 26, 1561), Spanish novelist and poet, of Portuguese descent, was born at Montemor o Velho (near Coimbra), whence he derived his name, the Spanish form of which is Montemayor. ... Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544 - April 25, 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered; 1575), in which he describes the imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. ...

Honoré's brother Anne, comte D'Urfé, had married in 1571 the beautiful Diane de Châteaumorand, but the marriage was annulled in 1598 by Clement VIII. Anne D'Urfé was ordained to the priesthood in 1603, and died in 1621 dean of Montbrison. Clement, in the monument in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, erected by his Borghese heirs Clement VIII, born Ippolito Aldobrandini (March 1536 - March 5, 1605) was pope from 1592 to 1605. ...

Diane had a great fortune, and to avoid the alienation of the money from the D'Urfé family, Honoré married her in 1600. This marriage also proved unhappy; D'Urfé spent most of his time separated from his wife at the court of Savoy, where he held the charge of chamberlain. The separation of goods arranged later on may have been simply due to money embarrassments. Events January January 1 - Scotland adopts January 1st as being New Years Day February February 17 - Giordano Bruno burned in a stake for heresy July July 2 - Battle of Nieuwpoort: Dutch forces under Maurice of Nassau defeat Spanish forces under Archduke Albert in a battle on the coastal dunes. ...

It was in Savoy that he conceived the plan of his novel Astrée, the scene of which is laid on the banks of the Lignon in his native province of Forez. It is a leisurely romance in which the loves of Celadon and Astrée are told at immense length with many digressions. The recently discovered circumstances of the marriages of the brothers have disposed of the idea that the romance is autobiographical in its main idea, but some of the episodes are said to be but slightly veiled accounts of the adventures of Henry IV. The shepherds and shepherdesses of the story are of the conventional type usual to the pastoral, and they discourse of love with a casuistry and elaborate delicacy that are by no means rustic. Henry IV (French: Henri IV) (December 13, 1553 – May 14, 1610), called the Great (French: le Grand), was the first of the Bourbon kings of France, reigning from 1589 until 1610. ...

The first part of Astrée appeared 1607, the second in 1610, the third in 1619, and in 1627 the fourth part was edited. In 1628 a fifth was added by D'Urfé's secretary Balthazar Baro. Astrée set the fashion temporarily in the drama as in romance, and no tragedy was complete without wire-drawn discussions on love in the manner of Celadon and Astrée. Events January 20 - Tidal wave swept along the Bristol Channel, killing 2000 people. ... Events January 7 - Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean moons of Jupiter. ...

D'Urfe also wrote two poems, La Sireine (1584) and Sylvanire (1625). He died from injuries received by a fall from his horse at Villafranca during a campaign against the Genovese. The best edition of Astrée is that of 1647. In 1908 a bust of D'Urfé was erected at Virien (Ain), where the greater part of Astrée was written. Ain is also a figure from mythology; see Ain (mythology). ...

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.