Nicolas Gilbert
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Nicolas Gilbert (born December 15, 1750 in Fontenoy-le-Château , Département Vosges , † November 16, 1780 in Paris ) was a French poet.
Life
Nicolas Joseph Laurent Gilbert, actually Nicolas Joseph Florens Gilbert according to the baptismal register, was born in 1750 as the son of a farmer, grain trader and village mayor in eastern Lorraine. Because of his talent, the village priest taught him Latin and gave him access to the College de l'Arc in Dole . During this time the first verses and prose pieces were written. After stays in Nancy and Lyon , Gilbert went to Paris in 1770 with a letter of recommendation to Jean-Baptiste le Rond, known as d'Alembert , to live off free poetry there. A position as a tutor initially suggested by Alembert was then assigned elsewhere. A first volume of poetry in 1771 received bad reviews from the “Philosophes”. Melchior Grimm mocked Gilbert in Correspondance littéraire , who apparently came to Paris only to make rhymes and to die of hunger. Only the conservative L'Année litteraire solicited pity for the poor unhappy young man. Gilbert also had no success with other publications in 1772, the Poete malheureux and an Ode Le Jugement dernier .
Via François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud , Gilbert made the acquaintance of Élie Catherine Fréron , editor of the conservative anti-Enlightenment literary magazine L'Année littéraire . Under the influence and support of Fréron, Gilbert became a vehement champion against the "philosophers". The satire Le XVIII dedicated to Fréron . siècle slandered the enlightened authors as presumptuous demigods and tyrants on Mount Parnassus . The monster Voltaire is hiding under the cloak of a philosopher. It drains talent and destroys virtue. The philosophers sitting in the Académie française only grabbed honorary gifts, wealth and jobs.
Through his restorative poetics, Gilbert earned high-ranking patrons. The Archbishop of Paris and the pious daughter of Louis XV, Madame Louise Marie de Bourbon , provided Gilbert with lucrative pensions and a royal grant of 1,000 livres. Until his early accidental death in 1780, Gilbert continued his literary feud with the "Philosophers". Gilbert fell from his riding horse a few days before his death. After a trepanation he is said to have swallowed a cassette key in delirium, which irreversibly lodged in the esophagus and led to death (Journal de médecine, January 1781, p. 82). Contrary to the fable, Gilbert died in a well-off situation. In his will, he is said to have bequeathed ten Louis d'or to a young soldier friend, later General Bernadotte , among other considerations .
The poem Adieux à la vie (also titled: Ode imitée de plusieurs psaumes ), composed a few days before his death, has almost modern echoes and is one of his few pieces of timeless value.
Aftermath
In the 19th century, Gilbert, among others, received a new reception of Gilbert in France, in which one saw the young, poor, almost insane poet who, in anticipation of the bohemianism, died of hunger for his art. This re-reception was impressively literarily incorporated in Alfred de Vigny's novel Stello , in the Black Doctor's story of the death of the poet and satirist Gilbert. The story draws its tension from the contrast between the gloomy dying scene of the misunderstood poet and the frivolous mood of the king and mistress' s pastime. The black doctor draws the conclusion: "Separate poetic and political life and create in complete solitude", a conclusion that, if you look at it closely, cannot be transferred to Gilbert or Vigny.
At the turn of the 20th century, with the last foothills of Romanticism, interest in Gilbert, who was almost completely forgotten, died out.
Works
- Les Familles de Darius et d'Éridame , EA without printer, La Haye et Paris, 1770, 2 volumes
- Début poétique EA without printer, (Paris), 1771
- Le Poète malheureux, ou Le Génie aux prises avec la fortune , Paris, 1772
- Le Jugement dernier , Paris, 1773
- Le carnaval des auteurs ou les masques reconnus et punis , EA Paris, 1773
- Le Siècle , Geneva (Paris), 1774
- Éloge de Léopold, duc de Lorraine , 1774
- Le Jubilé: Ode , 1775
- Le Dix-huitième Siècle: satire a M. Fréron , EA without printer, 1775, 8 °, 21 pp.
- Diatribe au sujet des prix académiques , Paris 1776
- Ode sur la guerre presente après le combat d'Ouessant , without printer, Paris, 1778, 8 °, 12 pp.
- Mon Apologie:, EA En Commission par M. Gilbert, 1778, 8 °, (2), 17, (1) S.
- Ode imitée de plusieurs psaumes known under "Adieux à la vie", 1780
- Ode au Roi , undated
- Réfléxions de M. Gilbert sur sa satire du dixhuitième siècle , undated
Work editions
- Oeuvres complètes de Gilbert , EA Le Jay, Paris, 1788, 8 °, XVI, 232 pp.
- Oeuvres complètes de Gilbert , Pillot Jeune, Paris, 1805, 2 volumes, 16 °, 171, (4), 169, (1) pp.
- Oeuvres complètes de Gilbert , Renouard, Paris, 1806, 2 volumes, 12 °, 189, 187 pp.
Several new editions of the works between 1823 and 1878 as well as individual editions of the poems
literature
- Laffay, Ernest: Le Poète Gilbert - Etude biographique et littéraire - Nicolas-Joseph-Florent (Laurent) Gilbert, 1750 - 1780. University thesis: Thèse présenté à la Faculté des lettres - June 29, 1897, Paris, 1898, 290 pp.
- Literature by and about Nicolas Gilbert in the catalog of the German National Library
Web links
on the death of the poet Gilbert s. Stello Chapter IV-IX
- Gilbert's biography in écriVosges
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gilbert, Nicolas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gilbert, Nicolas Joseph Laurent; Gilbert, Nicolas Joseph Florens; Gilbert, Nicolas Joseph Florent |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 15, 1750 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fontenoy-le-Château |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 16, 1780 |
| Place of death | Paris |