Pierre Patrix

Pierre Patrix, seigneur de Sainte-Marie, Norman gentleman (1583 – 6 October 1671), was a French poet. Patrix was born in 1583 at Caen (Normandy) from Claude Patrix, councilor to the bailiwick of the city and Margaret Bourgueville. His grandfather was a native of Beaucaire (Provence), who, having been in Caen in 1521, when the Parliament of Rouen sent some of its members to reform the University, was chosen by them, although he only was a Bachelor of Laws at the time, to be appointed as a professor of civil law. Some time later, he became Counselor in Parliament and University regent. Patrix's father had envisioned a career in law for his son. However, after defending his thesis before the Law School at Caen, on 19 August 1608, Patrix soon found out this line of duty to be utterly unattractive to him. To Patrix's lively, playful and independent frame of mind, the pleasures of his native Caen, then a haven of sociability and jollity, were far more attractive than practicing law, so he vowed to retain his independence. He contentedly kept this lifestyle until the age of forty, when, seeing himself left with very little in way of income, he sought to improve his prosperity for joining Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, as first marshal-master. The prince's bright and cheerful court in residence at Blois surpassed his brother's in terms of politeness, in agreement, and good taste. There, Patrix had an opportunity to demonstrate his wits. Gaston liked and esteemed Patrix, who held the rank of Grand Vicar in a Grand Conseil de Vauriennerie which he had established. He also met the likes of Voiture, Segrais, Chaudebonne, Rivièrere, and Belot. The talents of his mind, as well as his honesty, and loyalty, earned him everyone's esteem." He also was the one to hide Pascal in his house around the time he published his first Provincial Letters. Patrix always followed his employer's fortunes, and after his demise, in 1660, he attached his fate to that his widow, Ma