See also:CHARLES See also:GUILLAUME See also:ETIENNE (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 See also: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
.
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