Desportes, who was richly beneficed and in great favor at court, seems to have been regarded as Mathurin Régnier's natural protector and patron; and the boy himself, with a view to his following in his uncle's steps, was tonsured at eight years old.

Little is known of his youth, and it is chiefly conjecture which fixes the date of his visit to Italy in a humble position in the suite of the cardinal, François de Joyeuse, in 1587.

Regnier found his duties irksome, and when, after many years of constant travel in the cardinals service, he returned definitely to France about 1605, he took advantage of the hospitality of Desportes.

He early began the practice of satirical writing, and the enmity which existed between his uncle and the poet François de Malherbe gave him occasion to attack the latter.

He was also made in 1609 canon of Chartres through his friendship with the lax bishop, Philippe Hurault, at whose abbey of Royaumont he spent much time in the later years of his life.

All his merits are displayed in the masterpiece entitled Macette ou l'Hypocrisie dconcerte, which does not suffer even on comparison with Tartuffe; but hardly any one of the sixteen satires which he has left falls below a very high standard.

Les Premieres d'Euvres ou satyres de Regnier (Paris, 1608) included the Discours au rol and ten satires.