SCÈVE, MAURICE

(ca. 1501-ca. 1564)

French poet, a member of the group known asLa Pléiade, especially important for bringingNeoplatonicinfluence into French poetry. He was born into a pros-perous family of Lyon and received an excellenthumanisticeduca-tion. His mistaken belief that he had discovered the tomb ofPe-trarch'sLaura appears in hisemblembookDélie(1544), a series of love poems in the italianate sonnet form. Other important works wereLa saulsaye/The Willow-Grove(1547), a pastoral poem, andMicro-cosme(1562), a philosophical poem.