François Ponsard (1 June 1814 – 7 July 1867) was a French dramatist, poet and author and was a member of 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 ...

Biography

Ponsard was born at

Vienne, Isère Vienne (; ) is a town in southeastern France, located south of Lyon, at the confluence of the Gère and the Rhône. It is the fourth-largest commune in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture alongside La Tour-du-Pin. Vienne w ...

in 1814 and trained as a lawyer. His first literary work was a translation of Lord Byron's ''Manfred'' (1837). His play, ''Lucrèce'', was first performed at the Thêatre Français on 1 April 1843. This date is notable in literature and dramatic history, because it marked a reaction against the romantic style of

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

and

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

. Ponsard adopted the liberty of the romantics with regard to the unities of time and place, but reverted to the more sober style of earlier French drama. The tastes and capacities of the greatest tragic actress of the day, ''

Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...

'', suited his methods, and this contributed greatly to his own popularity. He followed up ''Lucrèce'' with ''Agnès de Méranie'' (1846), ''Charlotte Corday'' (1850), and others. Ponsard accepted the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

with no very great enthusiasm, and was given the post of librarian to the senate; he soon resigned, and fought a bloodless

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

with a journalist on the subject. ''L'Honneur et l'argent'', one of his most successful plays, was acted in 1853, and he became an Academician in 1855. For some years he was inactive, but in 1866 he repeated his earlier success with ''Le Lion amoureux'', another play dealing with the revolutionary epoch. His ''Galilée'', which "excited great opposition in the clerical camp", was produced early in 1867. The play was essentially a romance drawn very loosely from the life of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

, the great 17th-century Italian physicist and astronomer who was forced to recant his work by the

Roman Inquisition The Roman Inquisition, formally , was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according ...

. It was a "hit with the public", but universally panned by critics as a "trite drama of human emotions". His ''Œuvres completes'' were published in Paris (3 vols., 1865–1876).

Death

Ponsard died in Paris in 1867, soon after his nomination to the commandership 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 ...

Place in French literature

Most of Ponsard's plays hold a certain steady level of literary and dramatic ability, but his popularity is in the main because his appearance coincided with a certain public weariness of the extravagant and unequal style of 1830.

Awards and honours

In 1845, Ponsard received the prize awarded by the

for a tragedy "to oppose a dike to the waves of

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

." In 1855 Ponsard became a member of the Académie française.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponsard, Francois 1814 births 1867 deaths Writers from Vienne, Isère Members of the Académie Française