Louis-Jean-Baptiste-Étienne Vigée (2 December 1758 – 8 August 1820) was a French playwright and man of letters.

Born into an artistic family, he was the son of the pastellist Louis Vigée

Louis Vigée

Louis Vigée was a French portraitist, fan painter, artist in pastels and a member of the Académie de Saint-Luc. He is also notable as the father of the writer Étienne Vigée and the painter Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun.-External links:...

 and the brother of the celebrated painter Élisabeth Vigée. He was popular in the salons for his pleasant personality and quick wit. Although employed as a secretary to the Countess of Provence, he wrote verse in praise of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, but his enthusiasm quickly faded and he was at one point arrested as a Girondist

Girondist

The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...

. He would live long enough to write poetry both in praise of Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 and Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...

.

He succeeded Sautreau de Marsy as editor of the Almanach des Muses

Almanach des Muses

L'Almanach des Muses was a poetry journal founded in 1765 by Sautreau de Marsy.Almanacs had known a great vogue during the second half of the 18th century. The aim of the Almanach des Muses was to go beyond what previous almanacs had attempted by presenting to its readership a selection of recent...

in 1794, and replaced La Harpe

Jean-François de La Harpe

Jean-François de La Harpe was a French playwright, writer and critic.-Life:La Harpe was born in Paris of poor parents. His father, who signed himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a noble family originally of Vaud...

 at the Lycée, but had nowhere near the same success as a teacher. A skilled imitator of Dorat

Claude Joseph Dorat

Claude Joseph Dorat was a French writer, also known as Le Chevalier Dorat.He was born in Paris, of a family consisting of generations of lawyers, and he joined the corps of the kings musketeers...

 and Gresset

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his poem Vert-Vert....

, he put together several clever plays with many points of interest both in style and plotting.

Plays

• Les Aveux difficiles (1783), one act in verse
• La Fausse coquette (1784), three acts in verse
• Les Amants timides (1785)
• La Belle-Mère, ou les Dangers d’un second mariage (1788), five acts in verse
• L’Entrevue (1788), one act in verse
• Le Projet extravagant (1792)
• La Matinée d’une jolie femme (1792)
• La Vivacité à l’épreuve (1793)
• Ninon de Lenclos (1797)
• La Princesse de Babylone (1815)

A sample can be found in Bibliothèque dramatique (1824).

Other

• Manuel de littérature (Paris, 1809, duodecimo)
• La Tendresse filiale, poem (Paris, 1812, sextodecimo)
• Poésies, first published with Poèmes by Legouvé
  Gabriel-Marie Legouvé
  Gabriel Marie Jean Baptiste Legouvé was a French poet. He was the seventh member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1803....
  
  (1799, octavo), then alone (5th ed. Paris, 1813, octodecimo)
• Procès et mort de Louis XVI, fragments d’un poème (Paris, 1814, octavo)
• Le Pour et le Contre, dialogue en vers (Paris, 1818, octavo)

External links

• La Matinée d’une jolie femme, one-act comedy in prose, Paris, Girod et Tessier, 1793
• Poésies, Paris, Delaunay, 1813
• His plays and their performances on the site CÉSAR