The most genuine poet of the eighteenth century. Born at Constantinople of a Greek mother, he knew Greek early and fed himself on the Greek poets, imbibing something of their spirit. His elegies, idyls, and odes are not mere repetitions of the conventional commonplaces, but new, original, and vigorous in idea and expression. He anticipated the Romanticists in breaking over the received rules of versification and in giving greater flexibility and variety to the Alexandrine line. Works : _Poésies_, first published by H. de Latouche, 1819; later editions are by Becq de Fouquières, 1862 and 1872; G. de Chénier, with new material, 3 vols., 1874; by Louis Moland, 2 vols., 1878-79. For reference: Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits littéraires_, vol. i; _Portraits contemporains_, vols, ii and v; _Causeries du lundi_, vol. iv; _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. iii; E. Faguet, _le Dix- huitième siècle_, 1890; E. Caro, _la Fin du dix-huitième siècle_, vol. ii, 1882; J. Haraszti, _la Poésie d'André Chénier_, 1892. 32. LA JEUNE CAPTIVE. This, as well as the _Iambes_ following, was written in the Saint-Lazare prison shortly before Chénier was sent to the guillotine. The young captive was Mlle. Aimée de Coigny; she escaped the guillotine and afterwards married M. de Montrond; she died in 1820. 33. 18. PHILOMÈLE; Philomela was daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Pursued by Tereus, king of Thrace, she was changed into a nightingale. The name is frequently employed in poetry for the nightingale. 34. 16. PALÈS, a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds. 35. IAMBES. 23. BAVUS, a conventional name; it is not clear who was in the poet's mind. MARIE-JOSEPH CHENIER. 1764-1811. A younger brother of André Chénier, enjoyed a great reputation as a dramatic poet and critic. Aside from the _Chant du départ_, which had a reputation approaching that of the _Marseillaise_, he is hardly to be considered as a lyric poet. Works: _Oeuvres complètes_, 8 vols., 1823-1826; _Poésies_, 1844. 37. LE CHANT du DÉPART. 9. De BARRA, DE VIALA; Agricole Viala and François-Joseph Barra (properly Bara) were both young boys, thirteen and fourteen years of age, who fell fighting with the revolutionary armies, the former in the Vendée, the latter near Avignon. To both the Convention voted the honors of burial in the Pantheon. Their names are often coupled, as here. ANTOINE-VINCENT ARNAULT. 1766-1834. He wrote a number of tragedies and a collection of fables that were admired in their day, but his name is best preserved for the larger public by this brief elegy, which is found in most anthologies. The circumstances attending its composition, on the eve of his departure from France after his banishment in January, 1816, are related by Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. vii, in the course of his notice of Arnault, which should be consulted. FRANÇOIS-RENÉ, VICOMTE DE CHAUTEAUBRIAND. 1768-1848.