The Theme of Être and Paraître in the Works of Agrippa D'Aubigné

The works of the late Renaissance poet Agrippa D'Aubigné were to a great extent inspired by his feelings of hatred and bitterness toward the Catholic Church and the monarchy of the later Valois's. This hatred often expressed itself in the epic vision of a Protestant crusade against tyranny and injustice. Elsewhere, his feelings expressed themselves in the form of savage satire. This satirical inspiration is most prominent in the first three cantos of his epic poem Les Tragiques and in a prose dialogue entitled Les Aventures du Baron de Vaeneste. The structural principle which is constantly at work in these satires is the contrast between being and appearing, between reality and appearances, between être and paraître. Throughout these works, being is synonymous with truth, justice, and the true faith, things which for D'Aubigné are the hallmarks of the Huguenot cause. Appearing, synonymous with falsehood, injustice, and hypocrisy, is looked upon as the main feature of the royal court and of the Church. This dialectical opposition of the two principles is always strictly maintained. Never is there expressed a possibility of reconciliation. Protestantism is always on the side of right, and Church and monarchy on the side of evil. Les Aventures du Baron de Faeneste is a very bitter invective against all the enemies of Protestantism in France. It is a novel written in the form of a dialogue between a Protestant gentleman named Enay (from the Greek eivoct, to be) and a swaggering young Catholic courtier named Faeneste ( from the Greek f œ ??&?