DUCANGE, VICTOR HENRI JOSEPH BRAHAIN (1783-1833), French novelist and dramatist, was born on Nov. 24, 1783, at The Hague, where his father was secretary to the French embassy. Dismissed from the civil service at the Restora tion, Victor Ducange became one of the favourite authors of the Liberal party, and owed some part of his popularity to the fact that he was fined and imprisoned more than once for his out spokenness. He was twice imprisoned for seditious articles in his journal Le Diable rose, ou le petit courrier de Lucifer (182 2) ; after the publication of Helene ou l'amour et la guerre (1823), he took refuge in Belgium. Ducange wrote numerous plays and melodramas, including Marco Loricot, ou le petit Chouan de 183o (1836), and Trente ans, ou la vie d'un joueur (1827). Many of his books were prohibited, ostensibly for their coarseness, but perhaps rather for their political tendencies. He died in Paris on Oct. 15,