BERANGER, bri'riix'zbA'. PIERRE JEAN DE (1750-1857). A popular French lyric poet of Royalist parents and P,epublican principles. He was born in Paris. Neglected in childhood, lie watched from a roof the storming of the Bastille, and imbibed P,epublican prejudices from an aunt at Peronne, where lie became president of a boys' Republican club. He helped his father in busi ness until bankruptcy. and was for a time re duced to great straits. The patronage of Lucien Bonaparte relieved him in 1804, and procured for him a clerkship in the university. Gratitude was thus joined to admiration for Napoleon, though lie gently satirized the despotic Emperor in his Rol d'Yretot (King of Yvetot, 1813), a song that first made Bsranger popular. His first collection of songs (1815) cost him his clerk ship for its liberalism and praise of Napoleon. but earned him distinction. A second collection (1821) brought fame, imprisonment. and a fine. A third collection appeared in 18'25, and a fourth in IS2S, for which he was fined 10.000 francs, paid by eager friends. He was also im prisoned for nine months, only to find his cell a reception-room for the most eminent men of the time. Two years later the Bourbons fell, but, rejecting the honors proffered by the Orleanists, Beranger retired to Passy, published a fifth col lection of songs in 1833, and nothing further. He accepted the honor of an election to the Con stituent Assembly of the Second Republic, took bis seat, but immediately resigned it. Honors
from the Second Empire he steadfastly refused. He died July 16. 1857. and was buried at public cost and with great distinction. Beranger was a worthy man and a good patriot, but he was emi nently the poet of the masses—coarse, sensuous, grandiloquent. His songs deal with love, wine, politics, sentiment, and with Napoleon, whose mighty legend he did much to establish. Thus he continues the song-writing of the Eight eenth Century in his Gallic mocking spirit; while on the other hand, he is a thorough going democrat whose belief in the wisdom of the majority is his creed. Ile reflected faith fully the mind of the great middle class, their Voltairettnism, their inclination to hero-worship, their love of good cheer, their complacent cyni cism. This insured his popularity then, and maintains it still. A volume of poems written between 1834 and 1851 appeared as Derniers Chansons (Last Songs) after his death; also an autobiography (Ma. Biographic, 1858). A l'ie de Beranger was written and his Corrcspondance edited by Paul Boiteau (5 vols., 18(30-61) Jules .Janiu, Beranger et son temps (1806), is also use ful. Consult also: Sainte-Bettye, Portraits contemporains, I.; Brunetiere. Poesie lyrique; Peyrat, Berangee et Lamennais (1861) ; Nivalet, Souvenirs historiques et etude unalytique sue Beranger et son eeuvre (Paris. 1892).