François Edouard Joachim Coppée (; 26 January 1842 – 23 May 1908) was a French

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

Biography

Coppée was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to a civil servant. After attending the

Lycée Saint-Louis The Lycée Saint-Louis () is a selective post-secondary school located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, 6th arrondissement of Paris, in the Latin Quarter. It is the only state-funded French lycée that exclusively offers ''Classe Préparatoir ...

he became a clerk in the ministry of war and won public favour as a poet of the Parnassian school. His first printed verses date from 1864. In 1869, his "Poème modernes" (among others ''La Grève de forgerons'') were quite successful. In the same year, Coppée's first play, ''Le Passant'', starring Sarah Bernhardt and Madame Agar, was received with approval at the Odéon theatre, and later ''Fais ce que dois'' (1871) and ''Les Bijoux de la délivrance'' (1872), short poetic dramas inspired by the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, were applauded. After holding a post in the library of the senate, Coppée was chosen in 1878 as archivist of the Comédie Française, an office he held till 1884. In that year, his election to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

caused him to retire from all public appointments. He was made an officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1888. Coppée was famed as ''le poète des humbles'' (the poet of the humble). His verse and prose focus on plain expressions of emotion, patriotism, the joy of young love, and the pitifulness of the poor. Coppée continued to write plays, mostly serious dramas in verse, two of which were composed in collaboration with Armand d'Artois. The performance of a short episode of the Commune, ''Le Pater'', was prohibited by the government in 1889. Coppée published his first prose work in 1875 and went on to publish short stories, an autobiography of his youth, a series of short articles on miscellaneous subjects, and ''La Bonne Souffrance,'' a popular account of his reconversion to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. His conversion was due to a severe illness which twice brought him close to death. Coppée was also interested in public affairs, joining the most violent section of the Nationalist movement (while remaining contemptuous of the apparatus of democracy) and taking a leading part against

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French Army officer best known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair. In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the Fre ...

in the Dreyfus affair. He was one of the founders of the Ligue de la patrie française, which originated in 1898 with three young academics, Louis Dausset, Gabriel Syveton and Henri Vaugeois, who wanted to show that Dreyfusism was not accepted by all at the University. They launched a petition that attacked

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

and what many saw as an internationalist, pacifist left-wing conspiracy.

Charles Maurras Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (; ; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet and critic. He was an organiser and principal philosopher of ''Action Française'', a political movement that was monarchist, corporatis ...

gained the interest of the writer

Maurice Barrès Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist, philosopher, and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the S ...

, and the movement gained the support of three eminent personalities: the geographer Marcel Dubois, the poet François Coppée and the critic and literature professor Jules Lemaître.

Criticism

The poet

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he s ...

, a young contemporary of Coppée, published numerous parodies of Coppée's poetry. Rimbaud's parodies were published in '' L'Album Zutique'' (in 1871? 1872?). Most of these poems parody the style ("chatty comfortable rhymes" that were "the delight of the enlightened bourgeois of the day") and form (

alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Ro ...

couplets In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

arranged in ten line verses) of some short poems by Coppée. Rimbaud published them under the name ''François Coppée''.Hackett, Cecil Arthur (1981). ''Rimbaud, a Critical Introduction''. CUP Archive. The poet Lautréamont cited his ''Grève de Forgerons'' in the list of the "penpushers" to be absolutely ignored (''Poèsie, Part I'').

Works

Poetry

*''Le Reliquaire'' (1866) *''Intimités'' (1867) *''Poémes modernes'' (among them: ''L'Angelus'', ''Le Père'', ''La Grève de forgerons'') (1867-9) *''Les Humbles'' (1872) *''Le Cahier rouge'' (1874) *''Olivier'' (1875) *''L'Exilée'' (1876) *''Contes en vers'' (1881) *''Poèmes et récits'' (1886) *''Arrière-saison'' (1887) *''Paroles sincères'' (1890) *''Dans la prière et la lutte'' *''Vers français'' *''Salut, Petit Jesus'' ″Pour Toujours" (1892) *''A tes yeux ''

Plays

*''Le Passant'' (1869) Translated into Portuguese by Alves Crespo (playwright, 1847–1907) as ''Sonho'' and published in 1905. *''Deux Douleurs'' (1870) *''Fais ce que Dois'' (1871) *''L'Abandonnée'' (1871) *''Les Bijoux de la Délivrance'' (1872) *''Le Rendez-Vous'' (1872) *''Prologue d'Ouverture pour les Matinées de la Gaîté'' (1874) *''Le Luthier de Crémone'' (1876) *''La Guerre de Cent Ans'' (1877) *''Le Tresor'' (1879) *''La Bataille d'Hernani'' (1880) *''La Maison de Molière'' (1880) *'' Madame de Maintenon'' (1881) *''Severo Torelli'' (1883) Translated into Portuguese by Jaime Victor and Macedo Papança, Visconde de Monsaraz, and performed in Lisbon at the National Theatre in 1887. Published in the same year. *''Les Jacobites'' (1885) *''Le Pater'' (1889) Translated into Portuguese by Margarida de Sequeira as ''O Pater''. *''Pour la couronne'' (1895) Translated into English by John Davidson as ''For the Crown'' and performed at the

Lyceum Theatre, London The Lyceum Theatre ( ) is a West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand in central London. It has a seating capacity of 2,100. The origins of the theatre date to 1765. Managed by Samuel Arno ...

, in 1896. ''For the Crown'' was performed at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

as a prize-winning opera ''The Cross and the Crescent'' with music by Colin McAlpin in 1903.

Prose works

*''Une Idylle pendant le siège'' (1874) *''Toute une jeunesse'' (1890) *''Les Vrais riches'' (1892) *''Le Coupable'' (1896). Translated into portuguese by Jorge de Abreu (1874–1932) as ''O criminoso'' (Lisboa: Empresa Lusitana, 356 p.; 16 cm.; col. Selecta) *''Mon franc-parler'' (1893–96) (articles) *''La Bonne Souffrance'' (1898)

Works in English translation

* (1890). ''Ten Tales''. * (1893). ''True Riches''. * (1894). ''Blessed Are the Poor''. * (1896). ''Coppée and Maupassant Tales''. * (1901). ''Tale for Christmas, and Other Seasons''. * (1905). ''A Romance of Youth''. * (1910). "A Piece of Bread," in ''International Short Stories''. * (1915). ''Pater Noster''. * (1915). "The Wounded Soldier in the Convent," in ''War Poems and Other Translations'', by

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

. * (1931). ''The Lord's Prayer''.

Notes

Sources

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External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coppee, Francois 1842 births 1908 deaths 19th-century French novelists 19th-century French poets 19th-century French male writers Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery French Roman Catholics French tax resisters French male poets French male novelists Infectious disease deaths in France Members of the Académie Française Members of the Ligue de la patrie française Officers of the Legion of Honour Symbolist novelists Symbolist poets Writers from Paris