MARMONTEL. 387 
enjoyment was interrupted by the following circuni- 
ftance. One Cury, a man of pleafantry, had compofed 
a fatire on the duke d’Aumont in the form of a parody 
on a fcenc in the tragedy of Cinna. Marmontel, who 
was intimate with him, got the verfes by heart, and im¬ 
prudently repeated them before a party at Mad. Geoffrin’s. 
They were attributed to him ; and, as he refuted to give 
up the real author, he was committed, on the complaint 
of the duke, to the Baftille. He was very well treated 
there, and was releafed after a ihort confinement; but the 
Mercure was taken from him. This was a confiderable 
pecuniary lofs; but he now began to receive a handfome 
ium from the multiplied editions of his Tales; and his li¬ 
terary reputation flood fo high, that he was in no danger 
of wanting profitable employment for his pen. After a 
tour through the fouthern provinces of France, in which 
he paid a vifit to Voltaire, he fat down ferioufly to com- 
pofition, and wrote his Epitre aux Poetes, for the prize 
of the French Academy, w hich he gained, though Tho¬ 
mas and Delille were his competitors. He alio finifhed 
his tranflation of the Pharfalia, and his Poetique Fran- 
$oife. The great object of his ambition was admifiion 
into the French Academy ; which, after much vexatious 
oppofition, he obtained in 1763, as fucceffor to Ma¬ 
rivaux. 
His next literary production, one which has conferred 
the greateft celebrity on his name, had a fingular origin. 
Confined to his chamber by an alfhmatic dilorder, he of¬ 
ten caft his eyes upon a print of Beiifarius which had been 
prefented to him, and was led to refleft on the character 
and adventures of that great man. The idea of forming a 
work of fiCtion upon the foundation of his hiftory, which 
might be a vehicle for his own political and philofophi- 
cal opinions, ftruck him ; and he wrought upon his plan 
till he had produced his “ Belifaire.” He read parts of 
his manufcript to fome friends, witli whom it had great 
fuccefs; but it had a fiery trial to go through before 
the doCtors of the Sorbonne. The liberal fentiments 
he had put into his hero’s mouth concerning religious to¬ 
leration, and the unimportance of controverfial theologi¬ 
cal tenets, were not likely to gain the approbation of that 
body. As he would not retraCt his opinions on thefe 
points, the Sorbonne proceeded to a cenlure of his work; 
but, in the mean time, large editions or it were difperfed 
over France and all Europe. The triumph was, in faCf, 
entirely on the author’s fide; and he gained in the con- 
teft all the reputation which his adverfaries loll. After 
a pleafant tour to Aix-ia-Chapel!e and Spa, in which he 
was flattered with various proofs of his literary fame, he 
returned to Paris, where he became acquainted with the 
mufician Gretry. For his benefit Marmontel worked up 
feveral little ltories into comic operas to be fet by him, 
i'uch as Le Huron, Lucile, Sylvain, L’Ami de la Maifon, 
and Zemire et Azor, which were prefented at the theatre 
with great fuccefs. About this time he quitted the houfe 
of Mad. Geoffrin, and took up his lodging with Madlle. 
Clairon, long fince changed from his mi ft re Is to that fpe- 
cies of female friend which France alone affords in per¬ 
fection. On the death of Duclos in 1772, Marmontel 
was appointed, without any folicitation, to fucceed him as 
hiftoriograplier ot France. He prepared himfelf to exer- 
cife the duties of this office by collecting’ materials for 
the reign of Louis XV. in which he was affilted by feve¬ 
ral perlons of conftquence. He alfo engaged in the com- 
pofition of the Supplement to the Encyclopedic, which 
followed the feven original volumes of that work. 
When the mufical warbroke out between the partifans of 
Gluck and Piccini, he took part with the latter, and wrote 
a pamphlet “ On the Revolutions of Mufic in France,” 
(1778.) which gave great offence to the Gluckilts. The 
lerious dramas, written for mufic by Quinauit, have in¬ 
creased in favour, as poetry, in fpite of Boileau’s four 
cenlures, ever fince the death of the author. The airs, 
however, could not he fet to modern melody in their ori¬ 
ginal ftate. And, when Piccini arrived in France, and 
requefted to be furniihed with dramas to fet, in which 
the fongs were phrafed and polifhed like thofe in the ope¬ 
ras of Metaffafio, the true models of lyric poetry, Mar- 
monte], in order to preferve the admirable lyric tragedies 
of Quinauit, modernized the airs, and retained all the 
original beauties of the dialogue. Encouraged to this 
undertaking by the moll enlightened men of letters, to 
vvliofe judgment he fubmitted his labours, he prepared 
for Italian nuific, the poems of Amadis, Roland, Per feus, 
Proferpine, Atys, Phaeton, Iiis, Thefeus, and Armide ; 
and, on being applied to by the directors of the opera to 
let Piccini have one of them to fet, he gave them their 
choice, which fell upon Roland, of which the fable was 
taken from the Orlando Furiofo of Ariolio. Piccini was 
unacquainted with the French language; it was therefore 
necelfary, in explaining the poem, to accompany him 
in his labour flep by ltep; and Marmontel performed 
this talk with as much zeal and folicitude as Quinauit 
himfelf could have done. The Italian compoicr, from 
thefe inftruffions, became in a (hort time fo well ac¬ 
quainted with the accentuation and nuifical expreflion of 
French words, that the moltTevere critics were unable to 
point out a fingle fault which he had committed againii 
the prolody and genius of the language. “ It is well 
known,” lays M. Laborde, “ how complete was the fuc¬ 
cefs of this undertaking ; he amply fulfilled the wifli of 
Marmontel, and folved the problem, whether the French 
language was capable of receiving Italian mufic.” We 
Hill think it is not; as the mufic which Piccini and Sac- 
chini have fet to French words is very inferior to that 
which they have fet to their own language. The num¬ 
ber of operas, lerious and comic, which Marmontel pro¬ 
duced for the feveral theatres of France, between the 
years 1747 and 1778, is prodigious. Very early in his 
life he turnifhed Rameau with operas for the Academie 
Royale de Mufique ; and, befides his dramas that were fet 
by others, he was author of the words of almoft all the 
comic operas which were let by Gretry, during his long 
and fuccelsful career. 
Marmontel, having now attained to the age of fifty- 
four, married a young lady of eighteen; and it is faid 
that this union, 1b very unfuitable in point of years, was 
the fource of much real felicity. About the fame period 
he publifhed another work, entitled “ Les Incas, or the 
Deftruftion of the Empire of Peru,” which united hiftory 
and fidtion, and which was evidently, like the Belifaire,. 
for the purpofe of inculcating liberal principles and en¬ 
lightened fentiments. In 1783 he was, on the death of 
d’AleYnbert, elected to the poft of perpetual fecretary of 
the French Academy; and from this period his compofi- 
tions were chiefly confined toeloges and other pieces read 
before the academy, as well in verfe as in profe. He alfo 
employed himfelf in a complete edition of his works, now 
become very voluminous. 
During the latter years of his life he had to witnefs the 
ftorrny lcenes of the French revolution. His ideas of re¬ 
formation went no farther than the conceftions offered by 
the crown in 1788; and he contemplated with horror 
the changes which he faw meditated by the popular 
party. He was neverthelefs chofen a member of the elec¬ 
toral affembly ; but foon loft the confidence of his con- 
lfituents, by oppofing an unlimited liberty of the prels ; 
and he gladly retired to his country-houle, to remain a 
fpettator rather than affor in the great revolutionary 
drama. In his retreat from the bufy and noify \vorld, he 
employed himfelf in writing fome additional Contes Mo- 
raux ; and a “ Cours Elementaire” for the inftruftion of 
young perlons, confuting of Ihort treadles on grammar, 
logic, metaphyfics, and morals. He alio drew up Me¬ 
moirs of his own Lite, addrelled to his children. In 1797 
he was brought forward again into public life, and cholen 
a reprefentative of the department of Eure. He pro¬ 
nounced before the legiflative body a difcourfe “ On the 
free exercife of public worfhip and he continued to dif- 
charge the functions of his office, till the decision which 
rendered. 
