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PONSARD, FRANCOIS (1814-1867)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 62 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PONSARD, See also:FRANCOIS (1814-1867) , See also:French dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Vienne, See also:department of See also:Isere, on the 1st of See also:June 1814. He was bred a lawyer, and his first performance in literature was a See also:translation of See also:Manfred (1837). His See also:play Lucrece was represented at the Thedtre See also:Francais on the 1st of See also:April 1843. This date is a See also:kind of See also:epoch in literature and dramatic See also:history, because it marked a reaction against the romantic See also:style of See also:Dumas and See also:Hugo. He received in 1845 the See also:prize awarded by the See also:Academy for a tragedy " to oppose a See also:dike to the waves of romanticism." Ponsard adopted the See also:liberty of the romantics with regard to the unities of See also:time and See also:place, but he reverted to the more sober style of earlier French See also:drama. The tastes and capacities of the greatest tragic actress of the See also:day, See also:Rachel, suited his methods, and this contributed greatly to his own popularity. He followed up Lucrece with See also:Agnes de Meranie (1846), See also:Charlotte See also:Corday (1850), and others. Ponsard accepted the See also:empire, though with no very See also:great See also:enthusiasm, and received the See also:post of librarian to the See also:senate, which, however, he soon resigned, fighting a bloodless See also:duel with a journalist on the subject. L'Honneur et l'argent, one of his most successful plays, was acted in 1853, and he became an Academician in 1855. For some years he did little, but in 1866 he obtained great success with Le See also:Lion amoureux, another play dealing with the revolutionary epoch. His See also:Galilee, which excited great opposition in the clerical See also:camp, was produced See also:early in 1867. He died in See also:Paris on the 7th of See also:July of the same See also:year, soon after his nomination to the commandership of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour.

Most of Ponsard's plays hold a certain steady level of See also:

literary and dramatic ability, but his popularity is in the See also:main due to the fact that his See also:appearance coincided with a certain public weariness of the extravagant and unequal style of 1830. His tEuvres completes were published in Paris (3 vols., 1865–1876). See La Fin du thedtre romantique et Francois Ponsard d'apres See also:des documents inedits (1899), by C. See also:Latreille.

End of Article: PONSARD, FRANCOIS (1814-1867)

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