GREVIN, JACQUES (c. 1539-1570), French dramatist, was born at Clermont and studied medicine at the University of Paris. He became a disciple of Ronsard, and was one of the band of dramatists who sought to introduce the classical drama in France. The comedies of Grevin show considerable affinity with the farces and soties that preceded them. His first play, La Man bertine, was lost, and formed the basis of a new comedy, La Tresoriere, first performed at the college of Beauvais in 1558, though it had been originally composed at the desire of Henry II. to celebrate the marriage of Claude, duchess of Lorraine. In 156o followed the tragedy of Jules Cesar, imitated from the Latin of Muret, and a comedy, Les Ebahis, the most important but also the most indecent of his works. Grevin became in 1561 physician and counsellor to Margaret of Savoy, and died at her court in Turin in 157o.
The Theatre of Jacques Grevin was printed in 1562, and in the Ancien Theatre francais, vol. iv. (1855-56). See L. Pinvert, Jacques Grevin (1899) .