| Marthe Cosnard | |
| Birth Date: | 14 April 1614 |
| Birth Place: | Sées |
| Death Date: | After 1659 |
| Occupation: | Writer, playwright |
Marthe Cosnard, baptised in Sées on 14 April 1614 and died after 1659,[1] [2] was a 17th-century French playwright. She wrote a Christian tragedy entitled les Chastes Martyrs. She was a member of the "Cercle des femmes savantes" of Jean de la Forge who nicknamed her Kandake. Her choice to remain a virgin earned also her the title of "Our Lady of Sees" in her lifetime.
Coming from a family whose members exercised various professions - lawyers, goldsmiths, apothecaries, doctors - from the 15th century, she was raised in an environment where the theater was particularly honored.[1] In 1650, aged 36, she brought out her tragedy under the patronage of Pierre Corneille whom she probably frequented.[1] The playwright paid her a tribute ending with the lines:
Ne te lasse donc point d’enfanter des merveilles,
De prêter ton exemple à conduire nos veilles,
Et d’aplanir à ceux qui l’auront imité,
Les illustres chemins à l’immortalité.[3]
Cosnard's play was dedicated to Anne of Austria, the wife of King Louis XIII of France. The subject was borrowed from a Christian novel by Jean-Pierre Camus, the Agatonphile, which would also inspire the first play by Françoise Pascal in 1655.[4] According to, the influence of Polyeucte, published in 1641, is undeniable.[1] The play, which probably wasn't presented, was repeatedly printed or counterfeit, indicating a "very successful reading and selling".[1]
Other plays have been attributed to Marthe Cosnard but without convincing evidence: Les filles généreuses - undated, le martyre de Saint Eustache - 1643 and le martyre de Sainte Catherine - 1649. On the other side, it would be proved that she is the author of the collection of short pieces La grande Bible renouvelée, wrongly attributed to Françoise Pascal.[5]