DUPONT, Pierre, French song-writer : b. Lyons, 23 April 1821; d. Lyons, 24 July 1870. His parents both died before he was five years old and he was cared for in the country by his godfather, a village priest. He was educated at the seminary of L'Argentiere and was after ward apprenticed to a notary at Lyons. He went to Paris in 1839 and published some poems in the Gazette and the Quotidienne. In 1841 he was saved from the conscription and through the help of Lebrun and a kinsman, published his first volume, 'Les Deux He was awarded a prize from the academy in 1842 and for a time was employed on the official diction ary. Gounod's admiration of a peasant song determined Dupont in his vocation as a song writer. He possessed no musical knowledge and had to engage Ernest Reyer to write down his airs, He sang his own songs at the workmen's i concerts in the. Salle de la Fraternite du bourg Saint-Denis. The public performance of
his famous Pais) was forbidden; chant des ouvriers) was even more popular and in 1852 his becoming the poet laureate of socialism proved obnoxious to the new government and he was condemned to be banished for seven years; but the intercession of friends soon procured his release and he withdrew for a time from participation in politics. He spent his later years in Lyons. His songs have appeared in various forms et chansons) (3 vols., with music, 1852-54) ; 'Chants et podsies> (7th ed, 1862). The best known are Braconnier,> Tisserand,> (La Vache blanche,) and 'La Chanson du tole.) Consult Baudelaire, Ch., 'Notice sur P. (1849) ; Dichant, ographie de Pierre Dupont) (1871) ; Lenient, Co., (Poesie patriotique en (1889) ; Sainte-Beuve 'Causeries du Lundi.)