DESPORTES

desportes, philippe (1546-1606), french poet, was born at chartres in 1546. as secretary to the bishop of le puy he visited italy, where he gained a knowledge of italian poetry afterwards turned to good account. on his return to france he attached himself to the duke of anjou, and followed him to warsaw on his election as king of poland. nine months in poland satisfied the civilized desportes, but in 1574 his patron became king of france as henry iii. he showered favours on the poet, who received, in reward for the skill with which he wrote occasional poems at the royal request, the abbey of tiron and four other valuable benefices. a good example of the light and dainty verse in which desportes excelled is furnished by the well-known _villanelle_ with the refrain "qui premier s'en repentira," which was on the lips of henry, duke of guise, just before his tragic death. desportes was above all an imitator. he imitated petrarch, ariosto, sannazaro, and still more closely the minor italian poets, and in 1604 a number of his plagiarisms were exposed in the _rencontres des muses de france et d'ltalie_. as a sonneteer he showed much grace and sweetness, and english poets borrowed freely from him. in his old age desportes acknowledged his ecclesiastical preferment by a translation of the psalms remembered chiefly for the brutal _mot_ of malherbe: "votre potage vaut mieux que vos psaumes." desportes died on the 5th of october 1606. he had published in 1573 an edition of his works including _diane_, _les amours d'hippolyte_, _elegies_, _bergeries_, _oeuvres chretiennes_, &c. an edition of his _oeuvres_, by alfred michiels, appeared in 1858. despot (gr. [greek: despotes], lord or master; the origin of the first part of the gr. word is unknown, the second part is cognate with [greek: posis], husband, lat. _potens_, powerful), in greek usage the master of a household, hence the ruler of slaves. it was also used by the greeks of their gods, as was the feminine form [greek: despoina]. it was, however, principally applied by the greeks to the absolute monarchs of the eastern empires with which they came in contact; and it is in this sense that the word, like its equivalent "tyrant," is in current usage for an absolute sovereign whose rule is not restricted by any constitution. in the roman empire of the east "despot" was early used as a title of honour or address of the emperor, and was given by alexius i. (1081-1118) to the sons, brothers and sons-in-law of the emperor (gibbon, _decline and fall_, ed. bury, vol. vi. 80). it does not seem that the title was confined to the heir-apparent by alexius ii. (see selden, _titles of honour_, part ii. chap. i. s. vi.). later still it was adopted by the vassal princes of the empire. this gave rise to the name "despotats" as applied to these tributary states, which survived the break-up of the empire in the independent "despotats" of epirus, cyprus, trebizond, &c. under ottoman rule the title was preserved by the despots of servia and of the morea, &c. the early use of the term as a title of address for ecclesiastical dignitaries survives in its use in the greek church as the formal mode of addressing a bishop. des pres, josquin (c. 1445-1521), also called depres or desprez, and by a latinized form of his name, jodocus pratensis or a prato, french musical composer, was born, probably in conde in the hennegau, about 1445. he was a pupil of ockenheim, and himself one of the most learned musicians of his time. in spite of his great fame, the accounts of his life are vague and the dates contradictory. fetis contributed greatly towards elucidating the doubtful points in his _biographie universelle_. in his early youth josquin seems to have been a member of the choir of the collegiate church at st quentin; when his voice changed he went (about 1455) to ockenheim to take lessons in counterpoint; afterwards he again lived at his birthplace for some years, till pope sixtus iv. invited him to rome to teach his art to the musicians of italy, where musical knowledge at that time was at a low ebb. in rome des pres lived till the death of his protector (1484), and it was there that many of his works were written. his reputation grew rapidly, and he was considered by his contemporaries to be the greatest master of his age. luther, who was a good judge, is credited with the saying that "other musicians do with notes what they can, josquin what he likes." the composer's journey to rome marks in a manner the transference of the art from its gallo-belgian birthplace to italy, which for the next two centuries remained the centre of the musical world. to des pres and his pupils arcadelt, mouton and others, much that is characteristic in modern music owes its rise, particularly in their influence upon italian developments under palestrina. after leaving rome des pres went for a time to ferrara, where the duke hercules i. offered him a home; but before long he accepted an invitation of king louis xii. of france to become the chief singer of the royal chapel. according to another account, he was for a time at least in the service of the emperor maximilian i. the date of his death has by some writers been placed as early as 1501. but this is sufficiently disproved by the fact of one of his finest compositions, _a dirge (deploration) for five voices_, being written to commemorate the death of his master ockenheim, which took place after 1512. the real date of josquin's decease has since been settled as the 27th of august 1521. he was at that time a canon of the cathedral of conde (see victor delzant's _sepultures de flandre_, no. 118). the most complete list of his compositions--consisting of masses, motets, psalms and other pieces of sacred music--will be found in fetis. the largest collection of his ms. works, containing no less than twenty masses, is in the possession of the papal chapel in rome. in his lifetime des pres was honoured as an eminent composer, and the musicians of the 16th century are loud in his praise. during the 17th and 18th centuries his value was ignored, nor does his work appear in the collections of martini and paolucci. burney was the first to recover him from oblivion, and forkel continued the task of rehabilitation. ambros furnishes the most exhaustive account of his achievements. an admirable account of josquin's art, from the rare point of view of a modern critic who knows how to allow for modern difficulties, will be found in the article "josquin," in grove's _dictionary of music and musicians_, new ed. vol. ii. the _repertoire des chanteurs de st gervais_ contains an excellent modern edition of josquin's _miserere_. despres, suzanne (1875- ), french actress, was born at verdun, and trained at the paris conservatoire, where in 1897 she obtained the first prize for comedy, and the second for tragedy. she then became associated with, and subsequently married, aurelien lugne-poe (b. 1870), the actor-manager, who had founded a new school of modern drama, _l'oeuvre_, and she had a brilliant success in several plays produced by him. in succeeding years she played at the gymnase and at the porte saint-martin, and in 1902 made her debut at the comedie francaise, appearing in _phedre_ and other important parts.