FRANCE] Jacques VallÈe, Sieur Des Barreaux (1599-1673) French poet. His great-uncle, Geoffroy VallÈe, had been hanged in 1574 for the authorship of a book called Le Flau de la Joy. His nephew appears to have inherited his scepticism, which on one occasion nearly cost him his life; the peasants of Touraine attributed to the presence of the unbeliever an untimely frost that damaged the vines, and proposed to stone him. His authorship of the sonnet on "Penitence", by which he is generally known, has been disputed, notably by Voltaire. Des Barreaux was apparently bisexual. Although he was later known as one of the lovers of Marion Delorme, a famous courtesan, he also was the lover of the freethinking poet ThÈophile de Viau, called the "King of Libertines" by Jesuit prosecutors. During his imprisonment in 1623ñ25 on charges of writing atheistic poems with homosexual allusions, de Viau addressed a poem to VallÈe, "The Complaint of ThÈophile to his friend Tircis", reproaching Des Barreaux for doing little to help him. After de Viau's death in 1626, a contemporary biographer of high society, Tallement des RÈaux, referred to Des Barreaux as de Viau's widow, "thus indicating that their physical relationship was common knowledge at the time." Subsequently, Des Barreaux was a lover of the libertine poet Denis Sanguin de Saint-Pavin, the so-called "King of Sodom", "a consummate gentleman" whose aristocratic rank and social connections protected him from prosecution for his witty, homosexually themed writings. In his PensÈes, Pascal refers to him in a passage about those who renounce reason and "become brute beasts". A French mystery document on vellum, either written and signed "Vallee" or about him. Approx. 7-3/4 x 1-3/4". Right edge affixed to back of an 1809 showing 3 signatures not identified. Worthy of research. VG.

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