Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Marc Antoine Madeleine Desaugiers

DESAUGIERS, MARC ANTOINE MADELEINE (1772- 1827), a Freuch dramatist and song-writer, son of Marc Antoine Desaugiers, a musical composer, was born at Frejus on the 17th November 1772. Being intended for the church, he studied at the Mazarin College in Paris, where he had for one of his teachers the celebrated critic Geoffroy. He did not continue his studies long, however, having shown signs of a decided dramatic talent, which his father thought it well to encourage. Ere he completed his twentieth year he had written a comedy in verse in one act, which was well received when produced on the stage in 1792. In the following year he wrote some verses which appeared in the Almanack des Muses. Dur ing the stormy period of the Revolution he emigrated to St Domingo with a sister who was about to marry a creole planter. He found that he had only escaped one danger for another equally great. During the negro revolt he was made prisoner, and barely escaped with his life. He took refuge in the United States, where he supported himself by teaching the piano. In 1797 he returned to his native country, and at once commenced to write for the stage. He was successful from the first, and in a very few years he became famous as a writer of comedies, operas, and vaudevilles, which were produced in rapid succession at the Theatre des Varietes and the Vaudeville. During the same period he acquired a reputation of a still higher kind as a writer of convivial and satirical songs, which, though different in character, can only worthily be compared with those of Be ranger. His singing of his own songs made his society eagerly sought for in many of the salons of Paris. In 1815 Desaugiers succeeded Barre" as manager of the Vaudeville, and he was prosperous for some years, though not in all respects well -fitted for the position. In 1820, however, the opposition of the Gymnase proved too strong for him, and he resigned. Five years later he allowed himself to be persuaded to resume the position, but he had scarcely done so when he fell into bad health. He died in Paris of the result of an operation for stone on the 9th August 1827. An edition of Desaugier s Chansons et poesies divcrscs appeared in three volumes in 1827. It contains a notice of his life by Brazier. See also Saiiit Beuve s Portraits Contemporains.