DELAVIONE, JEAN-FRA.NcO1S-CASIMIR, was the son of a merchant, and was born at Havre on the 4th of April 1793. He was educated at the Lycenm-Napolcon at Paris, and as early as his four teenth year gave proofs of his addiction to poetry, confiding his attempts however only to his brother, and a fellow-student, Eugene Scribe, with whom his friendship continued to the close of his life. In 1811 he composed a poem on the birth of the son of Napoleon 1. (the king of Rome as he was styled), which gained the approval of his tutor, and was presented to Napoleon on his visiting the Lyceum. It also procured him the patronage of the Count de Nantes, who gave him a situation in the excise-office, at which he attended only once a month, his patron advising him to pursue his poetical labours, and not waste his titno at the office. While thus situated lie published a poem on the death of Delille in 1818. In 1814 he tried for the prize given by the Acaddmie Francaise with his Charles XIL at Narva, an episode of a contemplated epic. He failed, but his poem received honourable mention. The next year he again competed for the prize with a poem upon the discovery of vaccination ; he was not suc ceissful, but ho was second. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, he expressed his feelings in two poems, called 'Messdniennes,' in which he laments the misfortunes and flatters the vanity of his countrymen. They were at firet circulated in manuscript, but they deserved and obtained popularity, for they contain many striking thoughts in poetical language, and when printed in 1824 they had an immense sale. There was in them considerable bitterness against the Bourbons, but Baron Pesqnier, then minister of Louie XVIII., sent for tho young poet, and appointed him librarian of the chancery, where there was no library. The appointment was very acceptable, as by the change of dynasty be had lost his place in the exciao. He did not however change his political opinions, but, choosing for his next sub ject Joan of Arc, he made constant allusions in the two elegies on her life and death to the evils of a country being subjected to strangers, mud to the glory of expelling them. He next turned his thoughts to
the stage, and produced his Vepres Siciliennes,' which, owing in a great degree to &iusller allusions to the recent events In France, had a great success when produced on the stage in 1819, though its dramatic merit is small, a florid diction scarcely supplying a weakness of characterisa tion and a paucity of poetic ideas. In 1320 ho produced the comedy of Les Com6diens,' but with lees success. These were followed by many others. As a dramatist he takes no high rank either in tragedy or comedy : of the first class perhaps his best work is the Louie XL;' of the second, L'Ecole des Viaillards ;' but there is the like want of dramatic power and of capability of fixing character in all of them. Many of them however had much temporary popularity. In 1825 ho WWI elected a member of the Academy, and notwithstanding his avowed political opinions, Charles X. offered him a pension of 1200 francs, which was firmly but courteously declined. On the occurrence of tho revolution of July 1830, he wrote and published his song of La Parisienne,' which for a time rivalled the famous ' La Iflarecillaise: He refused offers of employment however under Louis Philippe, bnt continued industriously, and, as far as profit was concerned, success. fully his literary labours. At length his health began to decline, and on the 11th of December 1843 ho died at Lyon, whither he had gone for change of air. After his death there was published is collection of poems, some new and some that had appeared at different times, under the title of Dernier Chants,' with a memoir by his brother. The poems are not of a character to Increase his poetic reputation greatly; his best production continues to be the ' Mess6niennes,' notwithstand ing their faults, though some of the shorter pieces occasionally contain a happy thought happily expressed. Various editions of hie complete works have been published, the first In 1845, in 8 vols. 8vo. A statue in bronze by David d'Angers has been placed in his native town of Havre.