Placide Cappeau (25 October 1808 – 8 August 1877) was a French poet and the author of the poem, "Minuit, chrétiens" (1847), set to music by

Adolphe Adam Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and '' Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas '' Le po ...

and known in English as the carol "

O Holy Night "O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a well-known sacred song for Christmas performance. Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line (Midnight, Christian, is the solemn hour) that co ...

" or "Cantique de Noël".

Biography

He was born on 25 October 1808 in Roquemaure (Gard). He was the son of Mathieu Cappeau, a cooper, and Agathe Louise Martinet. He was expected to follow his father in the family business (

vinification Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and w ...

and cooperage), but after an accident, he turned to the life of an academic. While at play as an eight-years-old, his friend Brignon was handling a gun and shot Cappeau in the hand. Cappeau's hand was amputated. With the financial support of Brignon's father, who supplied half the tuition, Cappeau attended a town school and then the Collège Royal d' Avignon. There he was awarded the first prize in drawing in 1825. After studying in Nîmes, where he received a ''baccalauréat littéraire'' (A level in literature), he studied law in Paris and was awarded a license to practice law in 1831. Following in his father's footsteps, he became a merchant of wines and spirits. Cappeau's was known locally as a poet. On a business trip to Paris in December 1847, at the request of his local priest, he composed his Christmas-themed text and, as his local priest had requested, presented it to Adam to set it to music, the request based on their shared acquaintance with a singer, a certain Madame Laurey, who was then living near Roquemaure who her husband, a civil engineer, was supervising the construction of a bridge. He later said he wrote the poem "Minuit, chrétiens" in a stagecoach en route to Paris, between

Mâcon Mâcon (), historically anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the prefecture of the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home to near 34,000 residents, who are referred to in French as ...

and

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...

dubbed the resulting carol "la Marseillaise religieuse" (The religious

Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du R ...

). Cappeau's other works include the 4000-line philosophical poem ''Le château de Roquemaure'' (1876), ''Le roi de la fève'', ''La poésie'', ''Le papillon'' and ''La rose''. He wrote in Provençal as well as in French. He was a friend of some of the great writers of the ''

Félibrige The ''Félibrige'' (; in classical Occitan, in Mistralian spelling, ) is a literary and cultural association founded in 1854 by Frédéric Mistral and other Provençal writers to defend and promote the Occitan language (also called the ) and ...

'', including

Frédéric Mistral Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral (; oc, Josèp Estève Frederic Mistral, 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was a French writer of Occitan literature and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language. He received the 1904 Nobel ...

Joseph Roumanille Joseph Roumanille (; 8 August 1818 – 24 May 1891) was a Provençal poet. He was born at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), and is commonly known in southern France as the father of the Félibrige, for he first conceived the idea of r ...

, and

Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ...

. He knew Alphonse de Lamartine as well. Late in life he adopted views at odds with his fame as the author of a Christmas text. In addition to being a non-Christian and freethinker, he opposed slavery and inequality in all forms and was sympathetic to socialism. He died on 8 August 1877 in Roquemaure at the age of 68. He was buried in his family's crypt in Roquemaure cemetery.

References

Bibliography

* Durieu (abbé René), ''L'auteur du "Minuit chrétiens", Placide Cappeau'', Nîmes, Lacour, 1996.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cappeau, Placide 1808 births 1877 deaths French male poets 19th-century French poets 19th-century French male writers People from Gard French amputees French writers with disabilities