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PIRON, ALEXIS (1689-1773)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 642 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PIRON, See also:ALEXIS (1689-1773) , See also:French epigrammatist and dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Dijon on the 9th of See also:July 1689. His See also:father, !rime Piron, was an See also:apothecary, who wrote See also:verse in the Burgundian See also:patois. Alexis began See also:life as clerk and secretary to a banker, and then studied See also:law. In 1719, when nearly See also:thirty years old, he went to seek his See also:fortune at See also:Paris. An See also:accident brought him See also:money and notoriety. The See also:jealousy of the See also:regular actors produced an See also:edict restricting the See also:Theatre de la Foire, or licensed booths at See also:fair times, to a single See also:character on the See also:stage. None of the See also:ordinary writers for this theatre would See also:attempt a See also:monologue-See also:drama for the purpose, and Piron made a See also:great success with a piece called Arlequin See also:Deucalion, representing Deucalion immediately after the See also:Deluge, amusing himself with recreating in See also:succession the different types of See also:man. In 1728 he produced See also:Les Fils ingrats (known later as L'Ecole See also:des peres) at the Comedic Fran raise. He attempted tragedy in Callisthene (1730), Gustave See also:Vasa (1733) and Fernand Cones (1744), but none of these succeeded, and Piron returned to See also:comedy with La Metromanie (1738), in which the See also:hero, Damis, suffers from the verse See also:mania. His most intimate associates at this See also:time were Mlle See also:Quinault, the actress, and her friend See also:Marie Therese Quenaudon, known as Mlle de See also:Bar. This See also:lady was slightly older than Piron and not beautiful, but after twenty years' acquaintance he married her in 1741. He died on the 21st of See also:January 1773, in his eighty-See also:fourth See also:year.

He was elected in 1753 to the See also:

Academy, but his enemies raked up a certain See also:Ode a Priape, dating from his See also:early days, and induced See also:Louis XV. to interpose his See also:veto. Piron however was pensioned, and during the last See also:half-See also:century of his life was never in any want. His best See also:title to remembrance lies in his epigrams. The See also:burlesque See also:epitaph on himself, in which he ridicules the Academy " Ci-git Piron, qui ne fut rien, Pas meme academicien " is well-known, while many others are as brilliant. See also:Grimm called him a " See also:machine a saillies." Piron published his own theatrical See also:works in 1758, and after his See also:death his friend and See also:literary executor, Rigoley de Juvigny, published his U uvres completes. M. Bonhomme produced a See also:critical edition in 1859, completed by Poesies choisies et pieces inedites in 1879.

End of Article: PIRON, ALEXIS (1689-1773)

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