Born into minor nobility, nephew of Nicolas Boileau, his literary talents attracted the attention of Louis Armand, prince of Bourbon-Conti, whose assistant he became in 1678.

Louis XIV of France gave him a number of diplomatic missions to Switzerland to negotiate agreements with the government at Neufchâtel.

Benefiting from a sizeable personal fortune, La Chapelle wrote and staged tragedies inspired by classical antiquity at the Comédie-Française: Zaïde, Téléphonte, Cléopâtre, Ajax.

His connections and the skill of the actor Michel Baron brought them success in the theatre, but none survived to join the standard repertoire.

A small prose comedy, Les Carrosses d'Orléans (1680), was on the other hand a genuine success and was frequently staged.