Pierre-Jean de Béranger
born
Aug. 19, 1780, Paris, France
died July 16, 1857, Paris
French poet and writer of popular songs,
celebrated for his liberal and
humanitarian views during a period when
French society as a whole was undergoing
rapid and sometimes violent change.
Béranger was active in his father’s
business enterprises until they failed.
He then found work as a clerk at the
University of Paris (1809). He led a
marginal existence, sleeping in a garret
and doing literary hackwork in his spare
time. After the downfall of Napoleon, he
composed songs and poems highly critical
of the government set up under the
restored Bourbon monarchy. They brought
him immediate fame through their
expression of popular feeling, but they
led to dismissal from his post (1821)
and three months’ imprisonment (an
experience he compared favourably to
life in his garret).
Béranger’s lyrical, tender songs
glorifying the just-passed Napoleonic
era and his satires ridiculing the
monarchy and reactionary clergy were
written in a clear, simple, attractive
style. Both song and satire soon made
him as well known among ordinary country
people as in the liberal literary
circles of Paris. He thus became an
influential and respected figure in his
own lifetime. He was able to live on the
proceeds of his works and refused all
official honours, even membership of the
French Academy. After the Revolution of
1848 he was elected a member of the new
democratic parliament.
In his
private character he was noted for his
amiability and generosity, as ready to
receive help from his many friends in
Paris literary society as he was to give
it when able. His best-known poems are
“Le Roi d’Yvetot” (written c. 1813; “The
King of Yvetot”), “Le Dieu des pauvres
gens” (“The God of the Poor People”),
“Le Sacre de Charles le Simple” (“The
Coronation of Charles the Simple”), “La
Grand-Mère” (“The Grandmother”), and “Le
Vieux Sergent” (“The Old Sergeant”).
