Antoine-Marin Lemierre

Antoine-Marin Lemierre (born January 12, 1733 in Paris , † July 4, 1793 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye ) was a French poet.

Live and act

Lemierre came from a very simple background and he had to provide for a living from an early age. He became secretary to the tax officer André Dupin, who encouraged him in his first attempts at writing and also became him a patron .

In 1758 Lemierre made a successful debut with his play "Hypermnestre". Many of his pieces, however, were more or less adaptations of well-known works. His “Artaxerce” is based on the play of the same name by Pietro Metastasio and his “Peinture” is a copy of François-Marie de Marsy's “Pictura”. His Guillaume Tell is reflected in Theodor Fontane's novel Before the Storm .

His plays were successful, if not permanent, and his audience loved him for it. In 1780 the Académie française chose Lemierre as the successor to the late aesthetician Charles Batteux ( Fauteuil 37 ).

At the age of sixty, Antoine-Marin Lemierre died on July 4, 1793 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he was buried.

Works (selection)

theatre

• Hypermnestre . 1758.
• La veuve du Malabar or L'Empire des coutumes . 1770.
  • German translation: Lanassa . Berlin 1782 (translated by Karl Martin Plümicke )
• Guillaume Tell . 1766.

Poems

• La Peinture . 1769.
• Les Fastes . 1779.

Work editions

• Théâtre . Paris 1795.
• Oeuvres . Paris 1810.
• Oeuvres choisies . Paris 1811.

literature

• Edward Forman: Historical Dictionary of French Theater . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Ml. 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-4939-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Antoine-Marin Lemierre in the catalog of the German National Library
• Antoine-Marin Lemierre . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 10, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 680.
• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)