VIGNY, ven-ye, Alfred Victor, Comre de, French author: b. Loches, Indre et Loire, 27 March 1797; d. Paris, 17 Sept. 1863. He en tered the army at the Restoration, but resigned from the service in 1827. By this time he had published two books of verse (Poemes) (1822) and 'Poeines Antiques et Modernes) (1826), the latter containing the 'Alois& ; and Ting Mars> (1826), a work of fiction wh4ch, despite the author's study of sources, is far from being true to history. This work owes much to Wal ter Scott. De Viguy made good translations of 'Othello) and the 'Merchant of Venice,) and won a great triumph in 1835 with his drama of Thatterton.,' At the highest point of his repu tation, he did not, however, follow up his suc cess; and he printed nothing further but a few poems in the 'Revue des Deux Mondes.) He was elected to the Academy in 1845. Many critics regard his (Servitude et Grandeur Mih takes, (1835) as his finest work. It is a col lection of short stories of the army, and was based to some extent on his own experience. Its tribute to martial heroism was highly ap preciated soon after the Napoleonic time. His
dramas and prose fiction, particularly Ting Mars,' are much better known than his verse, though it is chiefly by the latter that literary historians have appraised him. "'He is," saya Dowden, ((the thinker among the ,poets of his time" in France. His few informing philosoph ical ideas he treated with great, though unequal skill. His general attitude was one of a rather stoic acceptance of things, and his manner has a corresponding dignity. (See Cin-MAas). Other volumes by him are (Les Destinees' (1864), and 'Steno' (1832), the former verse, the latter prose. Consult Paleologue, 'Alfred de Vigny' ((Grand Ecrivains Francais,' 1891); Dorison, (Alfred de Vigny, Poete et Philoso phe) (1892); Montegut, 'Nos Morts Contem porains,) 1st series (1882) ; Sainte-Beuve, 'Por traits Litteraires,) Vol. VIII, (Portraits Con temporains,) Vol. II, and 'Nouveaux Lundis,) Vol. VI. Consult his (Life by L. Seche (Paris 1910).