Aubignac, François Hédelin, Abbé d'

Born Aug. 4, 1604, in Paris; died July 25, 1676, in Nemours. French writer and drama theorist.

Aubignac was the author of the well-known treatise on the theory of drama La Pratique du théâtre (1657), which helped establish the classicist canons of tragedy. He criticized Corneille for not observing these canons. Aubignac’s tragedies in prose, including Cyminde, or the Two Victims (1642) and The Maid of Orleans (1642), were unsuccessful. He also wrote the novel Macarise, or the Queen of the Happy Islands (1664). In the treatise Academic Conjectures Concerning the “Iliad” (published 1715), Aubignac expressed his doubts about the existence of Homer.