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See also:ETIENNE, See also:CHARLES See also:GUILLAUME (1778-1845) , See also:French dramatist and See also:miscellaneous writer, was See also:born near See also:Saint Dizier, Haute See also:Marne, on the 5th of See also:January 1778. He held various municipal offices under the Revolution and came in 1796 to See also:Paris, where he produced his first See also:opera, Le See also:Reeve, in 1799, in collaboration with See also:Antoine See also:Frederic Gresnick. Although Etienne continued to write for the Paris theatres for twenty years from that date, he is remembered chiefly as the author of one See also:comedy, which excited considerable controversy. See also:Les Deux Gendres was represented at the See also:Theatre See also:Francais on the 11th of See also:August 181o, and procured for its author a seat in the See also:Academy. A rumour was put in circulation that Etienne had See also:drawn largely on a See also:manuscript See also:play in the imperial library, entitled Conaxa, ou les gendres dupes. His rivals were not slow to take up the See also:charge of See also:plagiarism, to which Etienne replied that the See also:story was an old one (it existed in an old French See also:fabliau) and had already been treated by See also:Alexis See also:Piron in Les Fils ingrats. He was, however, driven later to make admissions which at least showed a certain lack of candour. The bitterness of the attacks made on him was no doubt in See also:part due to his position as editor-in-See also:chief of the See also:official See also:Journal de l'See also:Empire. His next play, L'Intrigante (1812), hardly maintained the high-level of Les Deux Gendres; the patriotic opera L'Oriflamme and his lyric masterpiece Joconde date from 1814. Etienne had been secretary to See also:Hugues See also:Bernard See also:Maret, duc de See also:Bassano, and in this capacity had accompanied See also:Napoleon throughout his See also:campaigns in See also:Italy, See also:Germany, See also:Austria and See also:Poland. During these journeys he produced one of his best pieces, Brueys et Palaprat (1807). During the Restoration Etienne was an active member of the opposition. He was seven times returned as See also:deputy for the See also:department of See also:Meuse, and was in full sympathy with'the revolution of 1830, but the reforms actually carried out did not fulfil his expectations, and he gradually retired from public See also:life. Among his other plays may be noted: Les Deux See also:Meres, Le Pacha de Suresnes, and La Petite Ecole See also:des peres, all produced in 1802, in collaboration with his friend Gaugiran de See also:Nanteuil (1778-183o). With See also:Alphonse Dieudonne Martainville (1779-1830) he wrote an Histoire du Thedtre Francais (4 vols., 1802) during the revolutionary See also:period. Etienne was a See also:bitter opponent of the romanticists, one of whom, See also:Alfred de See also:Vigny, was his successor and panegyrist in the Academy. He died on the 13th of See also:March 1845.
His Euvres (6 vols., 1846-1853) contain a See also:notice of the author by L. Thiesse.
End of Article: ETIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME (1778-1845)
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