Banville, THÉODORE DE

Banville, THÉODORE DE, a French poet and prose-writer, the son of an officer in the French navy, was born at Moulins in 1823. His first volume, Les Caryatides, issued in 1841, gave him a standing as a poet among the younger members of the Romantic school, and was followed by Les Stalactites, Rimes Dorées, Trente-six Ballades Joyeuses, Lcs Exilés, Les Occidentales, Odes Funambulesques, Comédies, Esquisses Parisiennes, Contes pour les Femmes, Contes Féériques, Mes Souvenirs, Petit Traité de Poésie Française, and Dans la Fournaise (1892). He was one of the most musical and sparkling of lyricists; one of the gayest and wittiest of parodists. The title 'roi des rimes' was given him from the graceful ingenuity with which he handled the most difficult forms of verse—the ballades, rondeaux, and rondels of the mediæval writers—which he restored to popularity in France, and which Andrew Lang and Austin Dobson, following his example, have successfully introduced into English poetry. Banville was an eloquent but hardly a discriminating critic. He died 12th March 1891.