Fontanes, LOUIS, MARQUIS DE

Fontanes, LOUIS, MARQUIS DE, was born 6th March 1757, at Niort, in Poitou. After the completion of his studies he went in 1777 to Paris, where he acquired a reputation by his poems, Le Cri de mon Cœur (1778), Le Verger (1788), L'Essai sur l'Astronomie (1789), and L'Épître sur l'Édit en Faveur des Non-Catholiques (1789). He also wrote a metrical translation of Pope's Essay on Man (1783), with an elegant introduction, and an imitation of Gray's Élegy. During the Revolution Fontanes conducted a couple of journals in the popular interest, was appointed professor of Literature at the College of the Four Nations, and admitted a member of the Institute. In 1802 he was made a member, and in 1804 president, of the legislative body. His admiration of Napoleon was great; and his oratorical talents were often employed in eulogising the emperor's acts. In 1810 he entered the senate, and, passing on the fall of Napoleon into the service of the Bourbons, was raised to the peerage by Louis XVIII. He died at Paris, 17th March 1821. His writings, prose and poetic, which are regarded as models of elegance and correctness, were edited by Sainte-Beuve in 2 vols. in 1837, with a critical and biographical memoir.