Charles Hubert Millevoye (24 December 1782 in

Abbeville Abbeville (; ; ) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of Ponthieu. Geography Location A ...

– 12 August 1816 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French poet several times honored by the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. He was a transitional figure between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries as revealed in his Romantic poems. His poem beginning "" (La Fauvette) is also well known as set to music in by

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

, as well as '','' as referred to in Meyerbeer's and

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and career Gottschalk ...

's serenade for piano '','' Op. 11.

Life

First taught by an uncle, he later studied with M. Bardoux, a professor in the College of Abbeville. His father died when he was 13 years old, and he was then sent by his family to Paris to finish his education. He began to study law, then became a bookseller, but finally abandoned both to commit himself to writing. Millevoye married Margaret Flora Delattre on 31 August 1813 in Abbeville and only had one child, Charles Alfred (1813–1891), who served as magistrate in charge of the judicial organization of

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

in 1860. Of his marriage with Irma Malvina Leclerc-Thouin on 7 June 1845 in Paris, Charles Alfred had three sons, of which Lucien Millevoye (1850–1918) was a Member of Parliament from

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

from 1882 to 1893, from Paris from 1898 to 1918, and director of the newspaper ''.''

Works

Millevoye in his time was well known for his poetry, which was a mixture of classical reminiscences and sentimental style. Literary critic

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he se ...

writes the following about him: "Between Delille who completes and

Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

who preludes, ��a pale and soft star shone for a moment: it is he." Millevoye mainly wrote elegies, of which (The Fall of the Leaves) is one of the most famous. Besides his poems, Millevoye also made fresh translations of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'', the ''Bucolica'' of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

and some dialogues of

Lucian of Samosata Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syria (region), Syrian satire, satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with whi ...

. He died at the age of 34. His complete works appeared ten years later, in 1826.

Notes

References

External links

* * * French Wikisource has original text related to this article: Charles Hubert Millevoye.
Sheet music for ''Vieille Chanson''
at Art Song Central 1782 births People from Abbeville 1816 deaths 18th-century French poets 19th-century French poets 19th-century French male writers 18th-century French male writers {{France-poet-stub