AICARD, JEAN FRANCOIS VICTOR French poet and dramatist, was born at Toulon. He went to Paris to study law, and his first visit was to Victor Hugo, who returned the young man's admiration in kind, and is reported to have said in the Academie Francaise, "Je promets ce poke a la France." Aicard won the Vitet prize, and soon became known in literary circles in Paris for the charm and luminous simplicity of his verse. His poetry includes : Les Rebellions et les apaisements (1871) ; Poemes de Provence (1874), and La Chanson de l'enfant (1876), both of which were crowned by the Academy; Miette et Nord (188o), a Provençal idyll; Le Libre d'heures de l'amour (1887) ; Jesus (1896), etc. Of his plays the most successful was Le Pere Lebonnard (189o), which was originally produced at the Theatre Libre. Among his other works are the novels, Le Roi de Camargue (189o), L'Ame d'un enfant (1898) and Tatas (19oi ), Benjamine (i906) and La Venus de Milo (1874), an account of the discovery of the statue from unpublished documents.