Évrard Titon du Tillet
Évrard Titon du Tillet(January 1677 – 26 December 1762) is best known for his important biographical chronicle,Le Parnasse françois,composed of brief anecdotalviteof famous French poets and musicians of his time, under the reign ofLouis XIVand the Régence.
Biography
[edit]OfScottishorigin, Évrard Titon du Tillet was the son of Maximilien Titon de Villegenon, seigneur d'Ognon,[1]a secretary of the King and general manager of thearmoriesunder Louis XIV. He studied law before his father obliged him to embrace a military career. He was already a "captain of dragoons" at the age of twenty, when unfortunately for him, the long-awaitedpeaceprevented him from advancing his career. He then purchased the sinecure ofmaître d'hôtelto the thirteen-year-oldduchess of Burgundy,the future mother ofLouis XV.Alas, in 1712, the Dauphine died of measles, and Titon du Tillet was unemployed for the second time. He was, however, soon named a provincial commissioner of war.
Titon du Tillet had the privilege of receiving the celebrities of his time, and from 1708 he was at work on an imposing project: to create a garden surrounding a monument, "the FrenchParnassus"(Le Parnasse françois), celebrating the glory of French poets and musicians under the reign of Louis XIV. He worked with the sculptorLouis Garnier,a pupil ofFrançois Girardon,to produce a model of the monument. Amaquettein bronze for the project was completed in 1718.[2]He also ordered a drawing by the painterNicolas de Poilly,which was presented to Louis XV in 1723. The monument was to representMount Parnassus,ornamented with laurels and myrtle, with Louis XIV in the figure ofApolloat the summit, playing the lyre. On a slightly lower level the threeGraceswere represented with the features of Mmesdes Houlières,de La Suze andde Scudéry.Lower down, surrounding the mountain,Pierre Corneilleoccupied the principal place, surrounded byMolière,Racine,RacanandLullycarrying medallions ofQuinault,Segrais,La Fontaine,BoileauandChapelle,the nine maleMusesof thegrand siècle.Unluckily, Titon du Tillet could not stop there: scattered among the bronze trees were to be seen further medallions of distinctly secondary figures, now slightly passé as musical taste had shifted towards thegalante,choices that elicited fromVoltairethe epigram
- Dépêchez-vous, monsieur Titon,
- Enrichissez votreHélicon;
- Placez-y sur un piédestal
- Saint-Didier,DanchetetNadal;
- Qu'on voie armés d'un même archet
- Saint-Didier, Nadal et Danchet,
- Et couverts du même laurier
- Danchet, Nadal et Saint-Didier.[3]
The expected expenditure, estimated at nearly two millionlivres,forced him to terminate a project that had something to it of the character of afolly.
Titon du Tillet then decided to carry the project out to some extent in a virtual form: he published in 1727, "a Description of the Parnasse François" followed by "an alphabetical List of the Poets and Musicians gathered on this monument".[4]In 1732, he published a second edition and increased the notes on the lives of the poets and musicians. Two further supplements were published in 1743 and 1755. This collection constitutes an invaluable source of biographical information for the mysteriousMonsieur de Sainte-Colombe,Marin Marais,Louis Couperin,Michel Richard Delalande,Nicolas Bernierand other celebrated poets and musicians.
A confirmed bachelor, Titon du Tillet was a cordial man always surrounded by many friends (some say that he was obstinate); his interesting conversation provided numerous anecdotes. In spring 1749, he withdrew toMontreuil,then on the outskirts of Paris, to a beautiful little hôtel, theFolie Titon,[5]which, after his purchase in 1751 of the adjoining plot from the vicomte d’Argentière, captain of the guards, he was able to surround by a large park, with Paris laid out below his garden doors. The diaristEdmond Jean François Barbier,himself a lawyer attached to theParlement of Paris,noted disapprovingly that Titon du Tillet lived in public debauchery with girls at the dinner table in a manner not "appropriate to a magistrate".
A passionate lover of arts and letters, Titon du Tillet supported ballets and plays. He constructed a theatre in his house where a number of performances were put on, introducing in 1760Demoiselle Leclair,who went on to a dance career at theComédie-Italienne,and in 1762Marmontel's playAnnette et Lubin,which attracted a considerable crowd.
Titon du Tillet died of a cold the day after Christmas, 1762, in Paris, aged 85.
Notes
[edit]- ^The seigneurie of Ognon, nearSenlisin Picardy, had been purchased by the elder Titon about 1670 (Caix de Saint-Amour).
- ^It is conserved in theBibliothèque Nationale.
- ^"Hasten, Monsieur Titon, enrich your Helicon: place upon a pedestal, Saint-Didier, Danchet and Nadal, seen armed with a single violin bow, Saint-Didier, Nadal and Danchet, and crowned with a single laurel wreath, Danchet, Nadal and Saint-Didier."
- ^Description du Parnasse françois, exécuté en bronze, suivie d'une liste alphabétique des Poètes et des Musiciens rassemblés sur ce monument.
- ^After his death, theFolie Titonwas sold in 1765; henceforth it housed the royal wallpaper factory that was directed byJean-Baptiste Réveillon;from the still-manicured gardens of theFolie,on 19 October 1783, the first hot-air balloon carrying human passengers ascended. On 28 April 1789, a riot of the workers of Réveillon burned theFolie;they were savagely repressed, in an opening episode of theFrench Revolution.Today plaques mark the site.
Work
[edit]- Évrard Titon du Tillet.Le Parnasse françois,1732, etc.
References
[edit]- Judith Colton,Le Parnasse François: Titon du Tillet and the Origins of the Monument to Genius,Yale University Press, 1979
- Théâtres de société: Folie Titon
- Amédée de Caix de Saint-Amour, "Origine du proverbe Ranger en rang d’oignons."
- Évrard Titon du Tillet, "" Le Parnasse Francois ", 2nd edition, 1732.
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