Marie-Joseph Chénier

Biography

Wire of Louis de Chénier, diplomat and historian, and younger brother of the poet Andre Chénier, Marie-Joseph Chénier was born as him with Constantinople but passed his childhood to Carcassonne, made his studies with the Collège of Navarre in Paris and became in 1781, at the seventeen, years age junior gentleman in the dragons by Montmorency. He spent two years in garrison to Niort.

He began with the Comédie-Française in 1785 with a drama in two acts, Edgar, or the Page supposed , which was whistled beginning with the end. In 1786, the tragedy of Azémire did not know a better fortune.

Its tragedy Charles IX, or the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre , renamed a few years later Charles IX, or the school of the kings , put in scene, at the time of the wars of religion, fanaticism with the catches with the spirit of freedom. The censure retained it during nearly two years, until Chénier launches several lampoons - Dénonciation of the inquisiteurs of the thought (1789), Of the Freedom of the Theater in France (1789) - who carried finally the authorization to represent the part not without pricking the curiosity of the public. The first took place after the storming of the Bastille, on November 4th 1789, with a great success, comparable with that of the Mariage of Barber . The subject, in agreement with the spirit of time, rained with the public, that the movement of the part - in addition missing intrigue, characters and of style - and the talent of Talma, whose reputation started to be established, completed to conquer.

The representations of Charles IX caused a scission of the troop of the Comédie-Française. The group known as “of the patriots”, taken along by Talma, settled street of Richelieu. It is there that Marie-Joseph Chénier made play, in 1791, Henri VIII and Jean Calas , then, in 1792, Caïus Gracchus which one retained the famous hémistiche: “ Of the laws, and not of blood! ” which was worth to him to be prohibited, on the initiative of the deputy Montagnard Albitte, because one believed to see a critic of the revolutionary mode there.

Fénelon (1793), embroiders again on fanaticism and freedom, not without improbability: one has seen the archbishop there Cambric to deliver a nun contained for fifteen years in a dungeon by order of his abbess. The part was criticized because it did not put in scene kings and princes, with the contempt of the rules of the traditional tragedy established by Aristote.

Timoléon (1794), with choruses put in music by Etienne Nicolas Méhul, appeared to attack Robespierre in the character of ambitious Timophane which his/her friends want awkwardly to crown in the middle of the assembly of the people. The part was prohibited and the manuscripts were removed by it. The part was taken again after the fall of Robespierre, but this time, one believed to see in the character of the Timoléon fratricide the herald of a kind of disguised confession: it gave the signal of a vigorous campaign showing Marie-Joseph Chénier to have made carry out her brother, charge wretched of which it was defended in its Épître on calumny (1796), one of its best pieces of poetry.

Actually, after some unfruitful attempts to save his brother, Marie-Joseph Chénier had to note that it was while being made forget authorities which it would have the best chances of hello and which badly advised interventions would do nothing but hasten its end. Itself, then suspected of tepidity and in bad terms with Robespierre, could not anything to save it.

Member of the Club of Cordeliers and the Common of Paris, Marie-Joseph Chénier had been appointed with the Convention by the department of Seine-et-Oise. He was there party of Danton. He voted the death of Louis XVI. On his report/ratio, at the end of 1792, was decided the establishment of the elementary schools and, on January 3rd 1795, the attribution of 300.000 francs help between 116 scientists, literary men and artists. Under the Directory, he was member of the Conseil of the Five hundred. He took share with the organization of the Institut of France and was placed in the third class (literature and fine art).

He took part, with the painter David and the type-setter François-Joseph Gossec, with the organization of number of the great revolutionary festivals between 1790 and 1794. If the anthem which it had prepared for the festival of the supreme Être were refused by Robespierre, its Chant of the departure is almost as famous as the Marseillaise , of which it Co-signed the verse of the children .

Member of the Tribunat under the Consulate, it was driven out by it in 1802 at the time of the purification of this assembly. In 1803, it nevertheless was named general inspector of the studies of the University. The following year, at the time of the crowning of Napoleon, it made play the tragedy of Cyrus , which was represented only once: if it justified the Empire there, it was by giving councils to the Emperor and while pleading for freedom, which was the best means of displeasing, and displeased indeed. Mortified, Chénier returned to the Republican party in its elegy the Walk (1805) and, in 1806, resigned of its functions of general inspector.

In 1806 - 1807, it gave a course to the Athenaeum on the history of the literature. Napoleon i made him a pension of 8.000 francs and charged it with the continuation of the French history .

Literary posterity

It is André, and not Marie-Joseph, who immortalisé the name of Chénier, and the junior is generally quoted today only in relation to the death of the elder one, in which it however seems proven that it was not any responsible. Under the Revolution and the Empire, it prolongs, by superficially putting them at the last style, the poetic and dramatic forms of the 18th century.

Its talent - which is real - the door unfortunately almost always with the declamation, the emphase and the blister. Madam de Staël judged it with accuracy: “It was a man of spirit and imagination, but so dominated by its self-esteem which it was astonished by itself, instead of travaiiller to be improved. ”

To the theater, it is announced especially by the almost systematic choice of subjects putting in scene fanaticism at the catches with the spirit of freedom. Camille Desmoulins, which rents it to have decorated Melpomène with the tricolor rosette, affirmed that Charles IX had more made for the Révolution that the days of October 1789.

Like poet, Marie-Joseph Chénier has composed of satires which does not miss the corrosive one, epigrams sometimes well found, elegies, like Walk , of epistles, of which the most appreciated in its time was the Epître in Voltaire (1806), who contains three worms often quoted on the immortality of Homère, lower however than those of Écouchard-Lebrun on the same subject:

Three thousand years passed on the ash of Homère,

And for three thousand years, Homère respected

Has been young encor of glory and immortality .

In spite of hollow passages and déclamatoires, the Speech on calumny (1796), composed against those which showed it to have had share with the execution of his/her brother, vibrates of a beautiful indignation:

calumny honors, by believing that it insult.

O my brother, I want, reading again your writings,

Chanter the dirge with your proscribed manes;

There, often you will see close to your mausoleum,

Your brothers groaning, your afflicted mother,

Some friends of arts, a little shade and of the flowers,

And your young bay-tree will grow under my tears.

Marie-Joseph Chénier had a real satirical talent. In the New Saints (1800), he scoffs with spirit Morellet:

Child sixty year old which promises something

or the Toothing-stone:

the large Perrin-Simpleton of the literature.

In the Small epistle with Jacques Delille (1802), it makes fun:

Commercial of worms, formerly poet,

Abbot, servant, vain old woman.

Works

; Theater

Edgar, or the Page supposed , drama in 2 acts, Paris, Comédie-Française (1785)
Azémire , tragedy represented with Fontainebleau on November 4th 1786 and with the Comédie-Française on November 6th, 1786
Charles IX, or the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre , tragedy in 5 acts, Paris, Comédie-Française, November 4th 1789, renamed later on Charles IX, or the school of the kings .
Brutus and Cassius or the last Romans , tragedy (1790, not represented): attempt to adapt the Julius Caesar of Shakespeare to the guns of the traditional dramaturgy.
Henri VIII , tragedy in 5 acts, Paris, theater of the Republic, April 27th 1791: it was the preferred tragedy of its author; it fishes by the same defects as the others - not very interesting intrigue, badly drawn characters - but offers more the pathetic one, in particular in the character of Anne Boleyn.
Jean Fixed, or the school of the judges , tragedy in 5 acts, Paris, theater of the Republic, July 6th, 1791: beginning with the end, this part rather tedious offers only the spectacle of the virtue oppressed by a fanaticism the Almighty. She was played only three times.
Caius Gracchus , tragedy in 3 acts, Paris, theater of the Republic, February 9th, 1792: the main character is a little more strongly traced than with accustomed in the parts of Chénier and one raises some beautiful tirades, but the action is non-existent.
the Camp thePre one, or triumph of the Republic , lyric entertainment in 1 act, Paris, Academy of music, January 27th 1793, music of François-Joseph Gossec, choreography of Pierre-Gabriel Gardel: This entertainment, composed with the autumn 1792, is intended to celebrate the Bataille of Valmy. It was represented with the Opera with a limited success.
Fénelon, or Cambric Nuns, tragedy in 5 acts, Paris, theater of the Republic, February 9th, 1793: the part was success thanks to the interpretation of Fénelon by Monvel.
Timoléon , tragedy in 3 acts with choruses, music of Etienne Nicolas Méhul (1794)
Cyrus , tragedy (1804)
Tibère (1819), tragedy in five acts, represented for the first time in 1844: undoubtedly the dramatic chief of work of Marie-Joseph Chénier.
Philippe II , tragedy in 5 acts.
Oedipus king , tragedy in 5 acts with choruses, imitated Sophocle.
Oedipus in Colone
Nathan Wise the , drama in 3 acts, imitated Lessing.
Portraits of family, comedy.
Ninon , comedy.

; Poetries and various

Epistle with my father (1787)
the Death of the duke of Brunswick , ode (1787)
Poem on the assembly of notable the (1787)
Dialog of the public and the anonymity (1788)
the Minister and the Man of letters , dialog (1788)
Short reflections on the civil statue of the actors (1789)
Denunciation of the inquisiteurs of the thought (1789)
Ideas for a book of the third-state of the town of Paris (1789)
Of the Freedom of the Theater in France (1789)
Panegyric on the National Assembly (1789)
Epistle with the King (1789)
Letter with Mr. the count de Mirabeau on the provisions natural, necessary and indubitable of the officers and the French and foreign soldiers (1789)
Anthem for the festival of the Federation, on July 14th 1790
Ode on the death of Mirabeau (1791)
Opinion on the lawsuit of the King (1792)
Strophes which will be sung with the Field of Federation on July 14th, 1792 , music of François-Joseph Gossec
Anthem on the translation of the body of Voltaire , music of François-Joseph Gossec (1793)
Anthem with the supreme Being (1793)
Song of the Sections of Paris (1793)
Hymn to liberty, for the inauguration of its temple in the commune of Paris , 20 brumaire year II, music of Gossec
the Anthem of August 10th , music of Charles Simon Catel
Triumph of the Republic
Song of the Departure , music of Etienne Nicolas Méhul (1794)
Ode with Calumny, in answer to the ″ Tail of Robespierre ″ (1794)
Anthem with the Reason (1794)
Song of the Victories (1794)
Ode on the situation of the French Republic during the oligarchy of Robespierre (1794)
Anthem of Thermidor 9 (1795)
Doctor Pancrace , satire (1796)
Epistle on calumny (1796)
the Old man of Ancenis, poem on the death of general Shakes (1797)
Hymne for the undertaking the general Hoche (1797)
the Song the Return (1797)
Pie VI and Louis XVIII (1798)
Discours on progress of knowledge in Europe and public education in France (1800)
the New Saints (1800)
the Miracles, tells devout (1802)
Petite epistle with Jacques Delille (1802)
the Two Missionaries (1803)
Speech in worms on the descriptive poems (1805)
the Walk (1805)
Epistle in Voltaire (1806)
the Retirement (1806)
Homage to a beautiful action (1809)
historical Table of the state and progress of the French literature since 1789 (1818)
Epistle in Eugenie
Epistle of one journalist to the Emperor

Portraits

Portrait with the pastel by Marie-Gabrielle Capet, about 1798, Stanford University Museum off Art (California), reproduced in: Lorenz Eitner, Betsy G. Fryberger and Carol Mr. Osborne, The Drawing Collection. Stanford University Museum off Art , Stanford, Stanford University Museum off Art, 1993, p.89, cat. No 96.

External bonds

All its plays and their representations on site CÉSAR
Card on the site of the French Academy

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