Marc-Antoine-Jacques Rochon de Chabannes

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Marc-Antoine-Jacques Rochon de Chabannes (23 January 1730 – 15 May 1800) was a French playwright.

Biography

Rochon de Chabannes was born in Paris. The fortune of his father, who was a prosecutor at the Parliament of Paris, allowed him to follow his inclination for the dramatic art very early on. His first comic operas, written in collaboration with his brother and imitating La Fontaine, were performed at the fairs of Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent. In 1764, he obtained a job of 6,000 livres in the offices of foreign affairs. In 1770, the Duke of Praslin sent him to Dresden as French chargé d'affaires.

According to Grimm, his first comedies were "episodic scenes without plot, without action, almost without subject, but which are supported by the pleasure of details and by the interest of a simple and natural dialogue".[1] Le Vacher de Charnois praised "the elegance of his style, his brilliant and spiritual ease without being sought after, a happy choice of ideas and words, a rare taste, and the observation of the most excellent principles".[2] In Heureusement, wrote Grimm, "Rochon de Chabannes knew how to paint with much grace and naivety the first impulses of a man towards glory".[1] In L'Amour français, "he offers us the picture of an interesting and virtuous woman who uses the ascendancy she has taken over all the affections of her young relative only to inflame his courage, and to obtain from him the sacrifices that the law of honor imposes on him."[1]

These praises are however far from being unanimous. Charles Collé, who attended the premiere of Les Valets maîtres de la maison in 1768, saw in it "a farce that does not have the honor of being cheerful". At the time of the first of Hilas et Silvie, he predicted that its author "will never make plays, whereas he does not have invention, that he ignores what it is that characters, and that by lacking these sides, having all the spirit that he believes himself and that he does not have, he will not succeed in his days to make a passable comedy".[3] And Grimm complained on the same occasion that "all his comedy is reduced to tips and puns".[4] The most virulent criticisms are those of La Harpe, who declared: "It is impossible to be poorer in invention than this Rochon".[5] Later, he softens his judgement and concludes that "the author has not fulfilled all the expectations he gave".[6] Rochon had his last success with La Tribu, a play commissioned by Conrad Alexandre Gérard de Rayneval. The Baroness of Oberkirch, who attended its representation at the theater of Strasbourg, reported that " happy thoughts, charming couplets were applauded with enthusiasm".[7]

Rochon de Chabannes was also the author of a number of fugitive pieces, most of which appeared in the Almanach des Muses, as well as a few translations of Juvenal that were appreciated.[8] He also took part, at the beginning of his career, in the debate on the nobility, with a satirical pamphlet entitled La Noblesse oisive (The idle nobility) in which he concluded "that the small masters have all interest to live in laziness, and that the greatest service that they can render to the State is to dedicate all their existence to idleness".[9]

Notes

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External links

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Grimm, Friedrich Melchior (1830). Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique, Vol. X. Paris: Furne et Ladrange, p. 179.
  2. ↑ Le Vacher de Charnois, Jean-Charles (27 mai 1786). "Théâtre de M. Rochon de Chabannes," Mercure de France, p. 83.
  3. ↑ Journal et Mémoires de Charles Collé, Vol. 3. Paris: Firmin Didot (1868), pp. 184–85, 215.
  4. ↑ Grimm, Friedrich Melchior (1813). Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique, Vol. 6. Paris: Longchamp et F. Buisson, p. 231.
  5. ↑ La Harpe, Jean-François de (1839). Lycée, ou Cours de Littérature Ancienne et Moderne, Vol. 13. Paris: Pourrat Frères, p. 242.
  6. ↑ La Harpe, Jean-François de (1825). Cours de Littérature Ancienne et Moderne, Vol. 15. Paris: P. Dupont et Ledentu, p. 466.
  7. ↑ Mémoires de la Baronne d'Oberkirch, Vol. 1. Bruxelles: Méline, Cans et compagnie (1854), p. 127.
  8. ↑ Thus, Raynouard finds "admirably rendered" the verse of Rochon: "He suffocates in the narrowness of the world" and judges it "well superior" to that of Boileau: See "Maître du monde entier, s'y trouvait trop serré," Journal des savants (mai 1827), p. 300.
  9. ↑ Roustan, Mario (1911). Les Philosophes et la Société Française au XVIIIe Siècle. Paris: Hachette, p. 129.
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