Chenier

Chenier, Marie-Andre, poet, was born in 1762 at Constantinople, where his father was French consul-general. After being educated at the College de Navarre, Paris, he joined the army, which, however, he soon left and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He rather favoured the revolution in its earlier stages, but, shocked at the excesses which it developed, he denounced it in pamphlets, and was thrown into the prison of Saint Lazare. After six months' incarceration he was executed July 25, 1794. His poems, through his being cut off at so early an age, are necessarily not considerable in number, but he is reckoned to be one of the French leaders of song in the eighteenth century. Among his best pieces are La Jeune Captive, Le Jeune Malade, and Versailles.