Henri Joseph Du Laurens was a French unfrocked Trinitarian friar, satirical poet and novelist, born at Douai, the son of the regimental surgeon Jean Joseph Laurent and his wife Marie Josephe Menon. He was author of such libertine works as Le compère Matthieu, Imirce, ou la fille de la nature and L'Arrétin moderne. He may also have written Candide, Part II. He died at Mariembourg in the French First Republic, now in Belgium.