HAIIPE, JEAN-FRANWIS DE LA, was born at Paris io 1739, and educated at the College d'Ilarcourt. He here unfortunately undertook the correctiou of a pasquinade against one of his instructors, and was accordingly suspected of being its author, and also the author of another which was directed against the tutor who had been his greatest benefactor. In consequence he was imprisoned for nine months in the Bastile. In 1762 he published a collection of juvenile poems. He was fortunate with a tragedy called ' Warwick,' which he produced iu the following year, but less so with two others entitled • Pharamond ' and Timaleon: It was about this time that his acquaiutance with Voltaire commenced. He now began to write 6loges for the Acad6mie, and those of Henry IV., Fenelon, and Racine were highly commended. His poems ants dramas, excepting ' Warwick,' and his translations from Sophocles, made comparatively small impres sion. Ile afterwards published his Lycee, ou Cours de in Litt6rature,' his bleusoires Littemires,' and a satirical work called 'Correspondence Turque.' At the commencement of the Revolution he was a zealous republican; but the imprisonment which he suffered from the demo crats changed his politico, and he became a warm defender of the church and the monarch/. He was bold enough at the first sittings
of the Lye& des Arts to inveigh against the Terrorists, and he would have suffered from their vengeance if he had not escaped by flight. After the lbth Brumaire (9th of November 1799), he began anew his lectured at the Lye6e. Shortly before his death Lis freedom of speech offended the first consul, and he was banished to (iridium He returned to Paris soon afterwards, and died iu 1803.
The reputation of La Harpe rests on his • Lyc6e,' which is a very valuable work to the student of French literature, of which it gives a complete history from its commencement to the author's own time. The criticistna ou the different writers aro not fuunded on principles acknowledged by the English, but perhaps the value of the book is on that account greater, as it exhibits the object of the French authors, and the standard according to which they are to be judged when com pared with each other. The philological remarks also are serviceable io instructing the reader in the niceties of the language. The part relating to ancient literature is of little value.