LEGOUVE, ERNEST ( 1807-1903 ) . A French dramatist, essayist. and academician, son of the poet Jean Baptiste Legouv6. His mother died in 1810, and his father soon had to be put in a lunatic asylum. but the orphan had plenty of money and was well educated. In 1829 he won an academic prize for a poem on the discovery of printing, but he first made his mark twenty years later (1849) by the drama Adrienne Lecourreur, written in collaboration with Scribe (q.v.), as were also Les conics de la reine de Navarre (1850), Bataille des dames Les doigts de ft'e ( 1858 ) . His dramas written independently of Scribe are insignificant, save for iledee, rather than play which Rachel paid 5000 francs, though Ilistori achieved suc cess with it in an Italian translation. Legouve's dramatic works were collected (1887-90). He wrote also on education, on the social position, of women, and on L'art de la lecture (H77 and 1881), in which he was an adept. In 1881
Legouve was made director of studies in the normal school for girls at Sevres, and in 1887 a commander in the Legion of Honor. Toward the end of his life Legonvil was known for his studies on the character and needs of women and children in France. La femme en France au SITCmc skele (1864) was reissued, much enlarged, in 1878. Messieurs k's enfants ap peared in 1868; then came his Conft'renees parisicnncs (1872); Vos fines et nos fils (1S77) and Cue education de jcunc fine (1884) : all very influential in changing French methods of education. In 1886-87 Legouvil published his autobiography, Soi.rante ans de sourenirs. He was always fond of physical training, which he urged as important to France. and was himself a skillful fencer and pistol-shot. He died Alarch 14, 1903.