[92] He was the son of a musician of the Opera, and was born on August 31, 1746. He became a dancer at the theatre in 1764, where he quickly distinguished himself by his skill in “_la danse haute_,” his performances in the ballets introduced into _Les Amours de Ragonde_ (1773), _Iphigénie en Aulide_ (1774), _Philémon et Baucis_ (1774), and _La Chercheuse d’esprit_ (1778), being particularly admired. In 1781, owing to an injury to one of his feet, he retired from the active exercise of his profession, and was appointed _maître des ballets_. In the following year, he received from the King a pension of 1500 livres, for his services as a dancer in ballets represented before the Court. A facile and graceful poet, Despréaux was the author of several parodies of operas: _Christophe et Pierre Luc_, parody of _Castor et Pollux_; _Momi_, parody of _Iphigénie_; _Syncope, reine de Mic-Mac_, parody of _Pénélope_, and _Berlingue_, parody of _Ernelinde_, which so pleased Louis XVI. when played before the Court, at Choisy, in 1777, that he granted the author a pension.--Campardon, _Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_, i. 146. [93] The marriage contract states that the property of the bride consisted of (1) an annuity of 12,000 livres; (2) a pension of 2600 livres on the King’s Privy Purse; (3) a pension of 6000 livres on the Royal Treasury; (4) a pension of 3000 livres on the treasury of the Opera; (5) a sum of 110,000 livres, partly in cash and partly in furniture, jewellery, linen, and wearing apparel. [94] In a manuscript collection of his _chansons_ preserved in the _Bibliothèque de l’Opéra_, he describes himself in the following terms: “Il faut que je vous désigne De ma taille la grandeur: Cinq pieds, trois pouces, neuf lignes, Voilà juste ma hauteur. Large front, bouche moyenne, Menton pointu, le nez long, Les yeux gris, figure pleine, Sourcils bruns, cheveux blonds.” [95] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 276. [96] A. F. Didot, _Souvenirs de Jean Étienne Despréaux_, p. 34. [97] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 301. [98] Among the writers who have fallen into this error may be mentioned: Lemazurier (_Galerie historique des acteurs du Théâtre-Français_), M. de Manne (_Galerie historique de la troupe de Voltaire_ and _Biographie générale_: Article, “Raucourt”), Émile Gaboriau (_Les Comédiennes adorées_), Mr. Sutherland Edwards (“Idols of the French Stage”), and Mr. Frederick Hawkins (“The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century”).