, one of the agents in the French revolution, was born at Carcassane,
,
one of the agents in the French revolution, was born at
Carcassane, Dec. 28, 1755, and was educated in polite
literature and natural philosophy by his parents, whom he
quitted in his youth, and became by turns a painter, musician, engraver, poet, and actor. He performed on the
stages of Versailles, Brussels, and Lyons, but with no
great success. As a writer for the stage, however, he was
allowed considerable merit, and obtained, on one occasion,
at the Floral ia, the prize of the Eglantine, the name of
which he added to his own. In 1786 he published in a
French periodical work, “Les Etrennes du Parnasse,
” a
little poem called “Chalons sur Marne,
” in which he
drew a very charming picture of the moral pleasures that
were to be found in that place and its neighbourhood.
This piece, however, fell very short of the celebrity to
which he afterwards attained. In 1789 and 1790 he published two comedies, “Le Philinte,
” and “L'Intrigue
Epistolaire,
” the former of which was reckoned one of the
best French pieces of the last century.