Claude Favre de Vaugelas

Claude Favre de Vaugelas, born on January sixth, fifteen eighty-five, was a prominent Savoyard grammarian and man of letters. Known widely by the name of his estate, Vaugelas, he served as a gentleman-in-waiting to Gaston, Duke of Orléans. His loyalty to the Duke during times of disgrace cost him a pension from the crown, which he heavily relied upon.

Born in Meximieux, in the Duchy of Savoy, Vaugelas was the son of the esteemed president Antoine Favre. His mother, also named Favre, inherited the Vaugelas estate by birth. His deep understanding of the French language and his commitment to linguistic correctness earned him a place among the founding members of the Académie française in sixteen thirty-four.

In his influential work, Remarques sur la langue française, published in sixteen forty-seven, Vaugelas argued that language should reflect the usage of the best society. As a regular at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, he was well-positioned to judge this usage. His efforts, alongside those of François de Malherbe, significantly refined French diction, establishing standards that classical writers of the seventeenth century would follow.

Despite facing opposition from contemporaries like Scipion Dupleix and François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer, who advocated for the more expressive language of the sixteenth century, Vaugelas's influence remained strong. In the latter part of his life, he took on the role of tutor to the sons of Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prince of Carignano. Claude Favre de Vaugelas passed away in Paris in February of sixteen fifty, leaving behind a legacy that included his posthumously published translation of Quintus Curtius's La Vie d'Alexandre in sixteen fifty-three.