Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy
A flamboyant, itinerant French bard whose comic and often scandalous verses made him a star of the Parisian burlesque scene.
1605–1677 (age 72)·French musician and poet·Birthday: October 16
Biography
Charles Coypeau, who adopted the name D'Assoucy, was the rockstar troubadour of 17th-century France. A virtuoso on the theorbo, a long-necked lute, he traveled from court to tavern, composing and performing his own comic poems set to music. His style was 'burlesque'—taking lofty, heroic subjects and dragging them through the mud of everyday, vulgar life, a hilarious counterpoint to the formal precision of contemporaries like Malherbe. D'Assoucy's life was as picaresque as his verse; he was a favorite of Louis XIII, a companion to Cyrano de Bergerac, and later, a bitter rival of Molière. His fortunes swung wildly from royal patronage to imprisonment for debt and even suspicion of sodomy. Through it all, he kept writing, leaving behind a vivid, autobiographical, and unapologetically ribald account of the artistic underworld of Grand Siècle France.
#1 When Charles Was Born
The biggest hits of 1605
Charles's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1605Born
1610Started school
1618Became a teenager
1621Could drive
1623Could vote
1626Turned 21
1635Turned 30
1645Turned 40
1655Turned 50
1665Turned 60
1675Turned 70
1677Died at 72
Key Achievements
- Pioneered the French burlesque poetry style, authoring celebrated works like 'L'Ovide en belle humeur' (The Ovid in Good Humor).
- Was a celebrated composer and master of the theorbo, performing his musical poems in aristocratic salons and public spaces.
- Wrote detailed, autobiographical accounts of his travels and conflicts in works like 'Les Aventures de M. D'Assoucy'.
- Enjoyed the patronage of King Louis XIII and later, the powerful Cardinal Mazarin.
Did You Know?
He famously fell out with the playwright Molière, leading to a war of satirical poems between them.
D'Assoucy was imprisoned in the Bastille for debt in 1662.
He traveled to Italy in the retinue of Queen Christina of Sweden after her abdication.
“I sing of heroes, but only to show their feet of clay and make you laugh.”
