Népomucène Lemercier

Louis Jean Népomucène Lemercier is a French poet born in Paris the April 21st 1771 and died in Paris the June 7th 1840.

Biography

Népomucène Lemercier had as a godmother the princess of Lamballe, whose his/her father was secretary of the commands after having been intendant of the count de Toulouse and the duke of Penthièvre and was protected, at her beginnings, by Marie-Antoinette which ordered, whereas it was old only 17 years, to create its tragedy of Méléagre , which had however only one representation, although the part, played in the presence of the queen, of the princess and all the court, had been applauded triumphantly. But the young man declared with the actors the next morning: “ Sirs, my success of yesterday touched me much, but did not make me illusion. My part is a work of child, it is a child whom the public applauded to encourage it; I have only one manner of showing me worthy of his indulgence, it is not to misuse it. Such kindness are not renewed. I withdraw my work, and I will try that my second tragedy is worthier of your talents. ”

An accident which has occurred in childhood partly left it paralyzed during the remainder of its days. “ With leaving childhood , written Jean-François Ducis, to cure its young body of which the half had been struck of paralysis, it passed by all tortures, and it assembled torment in torment in the sphere higher than it lives. It holds in its hand the reins of this body, it leads some with wisdom and firmness the alive part and the dead part. In the alive part exists its heart, with redoublings of spirit, an extent of sights, an audacity of design, which make for me a charming phenomenon of it, while the dead part makes of it for me a martyr who tenderizes me, a hero of the pain which astonishes me, and it is all that which explains me great passions that it inspired and felt, because the women have eyes to include/understand and adore these wonders. ”

It gave then, in 1792, a drama in worms, Clarisse Harlowe , inspired of the novel of Samuel Richardson, which made say that the author was not “ not coiled enough to paint the roueries ”. Enemy partisan of the Revolution but of his excesses, it denounced them in 1795 in the revolutionary Sanctimonious hypocrite , filled of daring political allusions and which was removed after the fifth representation. Then it gave in 1796 a tragedy, the Levite of Éphraïm before making play, the following year, its Agamemnon which gained a great success and brought the celebrity to her author.

One shouted with the genius and one disputed consequently Népomucène Lemercier in the living rooms of the Directory - at Mrs. Tallien, Mrs. Pourrat or Mrs. de Staël - where it was held, according to Talleyrand, for “ the man of France which causes best the ”.

It is at that time that it agreed, by challenge, to translate into worms, without shocking the propriety, licentious works of the cabinet of Naples. He composed the Four Metamorphoses (1798), i.e. those, under the effect of passion in love, of Diane in goat, Jupiter in eagle, Vulcan in tiger and Bacchus in vine.

He also composed a historical drama in prose, Pinto, or the Day of a conspiracy (1800) which puts in scene the revolution which carried the duke of Bragance on the throne of Portugal and announces the romantic drama: “ Of this work, observes Charles Labitte, would have dated the restoration from the French scene, if it had not been cut runs to boldnesses by the regularity of the Empire. ”

Lemercier had initially been dependant with Bonaparte. He had attended his living room as of his marriage with Joséphine and its tragedy of Ophis , on an Egyptian subject, had been represented the very same day where one learned in Paris the news military successes from forwarding from Egypt: several passages had been highly applauded of it in the honor of the hero of the day. After the 18 Brumaire, Lemercier was the regular host of the Malmaison, but its frankness started to upset the First Consul, who called it “ my small Roman ”: he predicted to him that, if he restored monarchy, he would not reign ten years; when the Empire was proclaimed, it returned its Légion of honor. Consequently, it was in hillock with the imperial censure, avoided any contact other than purely protocolar with Napoleon, appearing with Tileries only with the solemn receptions of the French Academy, where it was elected in 1810. It strongly reduced its literary activity. With the Emperor who asked him for one day: “ And you, Lemercier, when will you give us something? ”, it dared to answer: “ Lord, I wait! ”.

Nevertheless, with the fall of the Empire, its inspiration had been dried up. If it published in 1819 its work most known, Panhypocrisiade or the infernal comedy of the XVI {{E}} century , the text had been almost completely finished of it under the Consulate. It is a strange work, already definitely romantic, “ a kind of literary dream , known as Victor Hugo, a species of monster with three heads, which sings, which laughs and which barks. ” criticism was not tender for this astonishing work. “ It there has in this work , wrote Charles Nodier in the Newspaper of DEBATEs , all that it was necessary of ridiculous to spoil all the epopees of every century, and, beside that, all that it was necessary of inspiration to found a great literary reputation. This monstrous chaos of worms astonished to meet together from time to time points out what the taste has of purer. It is sometimes Rabelais, Aristophane, Lucien, Milton, through will fatras of a parodist of Chaplain. ” the poem especially makes think of the Tragiques of Agrippa of Aubigné, of which it finds the accents of indignation and strange poetry.

The rise of the romantic movement revealed shifted and obsolete Lemercier. Its works hardly had success, except for its tragedy of Frédégonde and Brunehaut (1821), which besides did not remain a long time with the poster. Forgetting that itself, advances some over its time, had been treated of insane under the Empire, he vituperated the Romantic ones. When it was said to him that they were his/her children, he said: “ Yes, of the found children! ” and, with the Academy, it obstinately refused its vote with Victor Hugo, who however finishes by him succeeding.

Works

Theater

Méléagre , tragedy in 5 acts (1788)
Clarisse Harlowe , drama, in worms (1792)
the revolutionary Sanctimonious hypocrite , comedy in 5 acts, worms (1795)
the Levite of Éphraïm , tragedy in 3 acts (1796)
Agamemnon , tragedy in 5 acts, represented with the Theater of the Republic 5 floréal year V (April 24th 1797)
the Prude , comedy (1797)
Ophis , tragedy in 5 acts, represented at the Theater of the Republic 2 nivôse year VII (1798)
Pinto, or the Day of a conspiracy , historical comedy, created with the Theater of the Republic 1st germinal year VIII (March 22nd 1800)
Isule and Orovèse , tragedy in 5 acts (1803)
Beaudouin, emperor , tragedy in 3 acts (1808)
Plaute or the Latin Comedy , comedy in 3 acts, worms, represented with the Comédie-Française on January 20th, 1808
Christophe Colomb , historical comedy in 3 acts, in worms, represented on the Theater of S. Mr. the Empress and Queen on March 7th 1809
Charlemagne , tragedy in 5 acts, represented with the Comédie-Française on June 27th 1816
the Brother and the Sister twins , comedy in 3 acts, in worms, represented with the Theater of Odéon on November 7th, 1816
the False catch , comedy in 3 acts fallen as of the beginning from the 3rd act, represented with the French Theater on January 25th 1817
the domestic Plot, or the Maniac supposed , comedy in 3 acts and in worms, represented with the Theater of Odéon on June 16th, 1817
Ismaël at the desert or the origin of the Arab people , scene Eastern in worms (1801), represented with the Theater of Odéon on January 23rd, 1818 (under the title Agar and Ismaël, or the Origin of the Arab people )
the insanity of Charles VI , tragedy in 5 acts (1820), was to be represented with the Théâtre of Odéon on September 25th 1820
Clovis , tragedy in 5 acts (1820)
Frédégonde and Brunehaut , tragedy in 5 acts, represented with the Second French Theater on March 27th 1821
Louis IX in Egypt , tragedy in 5 acts, represented with the Second French Theater on August 5th, 1821
the Corrupter , comedy in 5 acts and worms, finished on November 22nd 1812, represented with the Second French Theater on November 26th 1822
Dame Censures, or Corrupting the , tragi-comedy into 1 act and prose (1823)
Richard III and Jeanne Shore , drama historical in 5 acts and worms, imitated of Shakespeare and Rowe (1824)
the Martyrs of Souli, or modern Épire , tragedy in 5 acts (1825)
Camille, or Capitole saved , tragedy in 5 acts (1826)
Ostracism , comedy (1828)
Richelieu or the Day of Dupes, comedy in 5 acts, worms
the Heroin of Montpellier , melodrama in 5 acts, represented with the Theater of the Door Saint Martin's day on November 7th 1835
the Two girls spectra , melodrama in 3 acts and prose, represented with the Theater of the Saint Martin's day Door on November 8th, 1827
Polish serfs , melodrama in 3 acts, represented with the Theater of Ambiguous on June 15th 1830

Various poetries and works

Epistle of a prisoner delivered of the Bastille (1789)
the Four Metamorphoses (1798)
Homère , poem (1800)
Alexandre , poem (1800)
the Three fanatics , poem (1801)
One of my dreams or some worms on Paris (1802)
French Ages , poem in 15 songs (1803)
Hérologues, or Songs of the poets kings (1804)
the Man renewed , moral account in worms (1804)
Translation of the gilded Worms of Pythagore and two idylles of Théocrite (1806)
Speech of nature (1806)
Epistle with Talma (1807)
Atlantiade or the Newtonian théogonie , poem in 6 songs (1812): Odd didactic poem where allegorical divinities represent the heating one, oxygen, phosphorus, etc
Ode on the doubt of philosophical truths (1812)
Épître in Bonaparte on the happiness of the virtue (1814)
Épître in Bonaparte, on the widespread noise that it projected to write of the historical comments (1814)
Réflexions of a French, on a factious part of the French Army (1815)
Mérovéide or the fields catalaunic , poem of 14 songs (1818)
Of the Second Theater French, or Instruction relating to the dramatic declamation (1818)
Panhypocrisiade or the infernal comedy of the XVI {{E}} century , poem in 16 songs (1819)
Brace , poem (1819 and 1823)
analytical Course of general literature , 4 vol. (1820): Collection of the lessons given to the Athenaeum of 1811 to 1814.
Song pythic on European alliance (1820)
Ode at our analytical age (1820)
the Albigensian Peasant (1823)
heroic Songs of the mountain dwellers and Greek sailors , translated into French worms (1824 - 1825)
Ode with the memory of the Count de Souza (1825)
Almînti, or the Marriage sacrilege , physiological novel (1834)
Ode with the hymen , put in music by Luigi Cherubini
Ode on Melpomène of the French

External bonds

Card on the site of the French Academy
Ernest Legouvé, Sixty years of memories , Chapter IV, devoted to Népomucène Lemercier
Its plays and their representations (1788-1798) on site CÉSAR

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