COPPEE, FRANcOIS (1842-1908), French poet and novelist, was born in Paris on Jan. 12, 1842. After passing through the Lycee Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and from 1878 to 1884 was archivist to the Comedie Francaise. Meanwhile he had made a reputation as a poet, and was admitted to the Academie Francaise in 1884. Coppee became known as the poete des humbles because he chose as subjects for his often ex quisite verse the cares, loves and sorrows of the common people. The first of his many volumes of verse, Le Reliquaire, appeared in 1867 ; his first play, Le Passant, in 1869, and his first prose story, Une Idylle pendant le siege, in 1875. His plays include Severo Torelli (1883) and Pour la couronne (1895), the English transla tion of which, by John Davidson, was produced in 1896. His stories, describing with real insight the lives of simple people, had a great vogue, especially after his reconversion to religion, and the publication of his La bonne Sou ff rance (1898) made him popular with the bien pensants. After this he became a violent Nationalist, took a leading part against Dreyfus, and was one of the founders of the Ligue de la Patrie f rancaise. He died on May 23, 1908.
See M. de Lescure's Francois Coppee, l'homme, la vie, l'oeuvre (1889) ; G. Druilhet, Un Poete francais (1902) ; Gauthier-Ferrieres, Francois Coppee et son oeuvre (1908).