Étienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin (; 1532July 1573), French dramatist and poet, was born and died in Paris of a noble family.
Member of La Pléiade, he will strive to revitalize the principles of ancient Greek and Roman theater during the Renaissance. He was the first to introduce the alexandrine into tragedy in his time, notably with Cléopâtre captive, the first tragédie à l'antique, as well as L'Eugène in comedy. He is recognized as a precursor of the theater which was born in the second half of the 16th century, a convulsive period by Wars of Religion which saw its uncertainties embodied in his work.
Biography
Jodelle belongs to the Parisian bourgeoisie, but he is attracted to the nobility. He is “Seigneur du Lymodin”. The premature death of her father when Jodelle was only four years old forced her mother, Marie Drouet, to take care of the education of her children, Étienne and his sister. Her maternal uncle, Étienne de Passavant, who owned a large collection of books, seems to have been the one who ignited Jodelle's taste for literature.
He stayed in Lyon to 1550, then he settled in Paris where he became friends with Jean Antoine de Baïf, Nicolas Denisot and Remy Belleau. He belongs to the circle of the patron Jean II Brinon. Attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic composition. Jodelle aimed at creating a classical drama that should be in every respect different from the moralities and that then occupied the French stage, his first play, Cléopâtre captive, was represented before the court at the hôtel de Reims in 1552. Jodelle himself took the title role, and the cast included his friends Remy Belleau and Jean Bastier de La Péruse, in honour of the play's success the friends organized a ceremony inspired by pagan rites called at Arcueil when a goat garlanded with flowers was led in procession and presented to the author. The ceremony was exaggerated by the enemies of the Ronsardists into a renewal of the pagan rites of the worship of Bacchus.