French dramatist (1764?1846)
Victor-Joseph Etienne
, called
de Jouy
(19 October 1764 – 4 September 1846), was a French
dramatist
who abandoned an early military career for a successful literary one.
[1]
Life
[
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]
De Jouy was born at
Versailles
in 1764. At the age of eighteen he received a commission in the army, and sailed for
South America
in the company of the governor of
Guiana
. He returned almost immediately to France to complete his studies, and re-entered the service two years later. He was sent to India, and many of the events there were afterwards turned to literary account.
[2]
His literary contemporary
Stendhal
records in his book
Memoirs of an Egoist
one such violent action, of rape. He writes, "One day in India he [de Jouy] and two or three friends went into a temple to escape the dreadful heat. There they found the priestess, a kind of Vestal Virgin. M. de Jouy found it amusing to maker her unfaithful to Brahma on the very altar of her god. The Indians realised what had happened, came running up in arms, cut the wrists and then the head off the vestal virgin, and cut in half the officer who was a chum of the author of
Sylla
who, after the death of his friend, managed to climb onto a horse and is still galloping."
[3]
On the outbreak of the
Revolution
he returned to France and served with distinction in the early campaigns, attaining the rank of adjutant-general. He drew suspicion on himself, however, by refusing to honor the toast of
Marat
, and had to flee for his life.
[2]
At the fall of
the Terror
he resumed his commission but again fell under suspicion, being accused of treasonable correspondence with the English envoy,
James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury
who had been sent to France to negotiate terms of peace. He was acquitted of this charge, but, weary of repeated attacks, resigned his position on the pretext of his numerous wounds.
[2]
At some point de Jouy married the British born daughter of the novelist
Lady Mary Hamilton
who had moved to France with
George Robinson Hamilton
.
[4]
De Jouy now turned his attention to literature, and produced in 1807 with immense success the libretto for
Gaspare Spontini
's opera
La vestale
. The piece ran for a hundred nights, and owing in part to its
libretto
, was characterized by the
Institut de France
as the best lyric drama of the day. Other opera librettos followed, including Spontini's
Fernand Cortez
and
Cherubini
's
Abencerages
, but none obtained so great a success. From 1811 to 1814 he published in the weekly
Gazette de France
a series of satirical sketches of Parisian life, later collected under the title of
L'Ermite de la Chaussee d'Antin,
[5]
ou observations sur les moeurs et les usages francais au commencement du xixe siecle
(1812?1814, 5 vols.), which was warmly received
[2]
and made his name as a journalist; he contributed to
Le Nain jaune
,
La Minerve francaise
,
Le Miroir
,
Pandore
and
L'Observateur
. Etienne de Jouy was also one of the founders of the
Biographie nouvelle des contemporains
, who encouraged contributions from the young journalist
Francois Buloz
whom he had employed in his chemical factory and who would have a distinguished career guiding the
Revue des deux mondes
.
[6]
In 1821 his tragedy of
Sylla
gained a triumph due in part to the genius of the actor
Talma
, who had studied the title-role from
Napoleon
; it opened 27 December 1821 at the
Theatre-Francais
. Under the Restoration Jouy consistently fought for the cause of freedom, and if his work was overrated by his contemporaries, they were probably influenced by their respect for the author himself. He died in rooms set apart for his use in the
Chateau de St Germain-en-Laye
, 4 September 1846.
[2]
Works
[
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]
Some of the most notable out of the long list of his opera librettos, tragedies and miscellaneous writings are:
- Milton
(1804), opera, in collaboration with
A.-M. Dieulafoy
, music by
Spontini
- La Vestale
(1807), opera, music by Spontini
- Fernand Cortez
(1809), opera, in collaboration with
J.-A. Esmenard
, music by Spontini
- Les amazones, ou La fondation de Thebes
(1811), opera, music by
Etienne Mehul
- Tippo Saeb
,
[7]
tragedy (1813)
- Les Abencerages, ou L'etendard de Grenade
(1813), opera, music by
Cherubini
- Belisaire
, tragedy (1818)
- Les Hermites en prison
(1823), written in collaboration with
Antoine Jay
, like himself a political prisoner
- Moise et Pharaon
(1827), opera, with
Luigi Balocchi
, music by
Rossini
- Guillaume Tell
(1829), opera, with
Hippolyte Bis
, music by Rossini.
See also
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
Claude Pichois, "Pour une biographie d'Etienne Jouy,"
Revue des sciences humaines
(April?June 1965:227?252, given a synopsis in N. Furman,,
La Revue Des Deux Mondes Et Le Romantisme (1831?1848)
1974:12 note 5.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Jouy, Victor Joseph Etienne de
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 525.
- ^
Stendhal (2003) [1892].
Memoirs of an Egoist
. London: Hesperus Press Limited. p. 81.
ISBN
1-84391-040-3
.
- ^
"Hamilton, Mary"
.
Dictionary of National Biography
. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885?1900.
- ^
"The hermit of the (fashionable)
Chaussee d'Antin
, or, observations on French manners and customs at the beginning of the 19th century"
- ^
Pichois 1965 noted in Furman 1974.
- ^
Tippoo Sahib
(1750?1799) was the
sultan of Mysore
who had recently defied the British in Inmdia.
References
[
edit
]
- Michel Faul,
Les aventures militaires, litteraires et autres d'Etienne de Jouy
(Editions Seguier, France) March 2009,
ISBN
978-2-84049-556-7
)
External links
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