Background
Jean Baptiste Rousseau was born on April 6, 1671 in Paris, France. The son of a shoemaker, he was well educated and early gained favour with Boileau, who encouraged him to write.
Jean Baptiste Rousseau was born on April 6, 1671 in Paris, France. The son of a shoemaker, he was well educated and early gained favour with Boileau, who encouraged him to write.
Finding himself on his own, since his father and uncle had more or less disowned him, the teenage Rousseau supported himself for a time as a servant, secretary, and tutor, wandering in Italy (Piedmont and Savoy) and France. During this time, he lived on and off with De Warens, whom he idolized and called his "maman". Flattered by his devotion, De Warens tried to get him started in a profession, and arranged formal music lessons for him. At one point, he briefly attended a seminary with the idea of becoming a priest.
A one-act comedy, Le Café, failed in 1694, and he was not much happier with a more ambitious play, Le Flatteur (1696), or with the opera of Vénus et Adonis (1697).
He tried in 1700 another comedy, Le Capricieux, which had the same fate.
A shower of libellous and sometimes obscene verses was written by or attributed to him, and at last he was turned out of the cafe.
At the same time his poems, as yet only singly printed or in manuscript, acquired him a great reputation, due to the dearth of genuine lyrical poetry between Racine and Chenier.
He had in 1701 been made a member of the Académie des inscriptions; he had been offered, though he had not accepted, profitable places in the revenue department; he had become a favourite of the libertine but influential coterie of the Temple; and in 1710 he presented himself as a candidate for the Académie française.
Then began the second chapter of an extraordinary history of the animosities of authors. A copy of verses, more offensive than ever, was handed round, and gossip maintained that Rousseau was its author.
Legal proceedings of various kinds followed, and Rousseau ascribed the lampoon to Joseph Saurin.
In 1712 Rousseau was prosecuted for defamation of character, and, on his non-appearance in court, was condemned par contumace to perpetual exile.
He spent the rest of his life in foreign countries except for a clandestine visit to Paris in 1738, refusing to accept the permission to return which was offered him in 1716 because it was not accompanied by complete rehabilitation.
Prince Eugene and then other persons of distinction took him under their protection during his exile, and he printed at Soleure the first edition of his poetical works.
Voltaire and he met at Brussels.
He was a member of the Académie des inscriptions.
