Nicolas-Joseph-Laurent Gilbert (December 15, 1750 – November 16, 1780) was a French poet born at

Fontenoy-le-Château Fontenoy-le-Château () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. In January 2013 it merged with the former commune of Le Magny. Personalities The poet Nicolas Joseph Florent Gilbert was born on December 15, ...

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

. Having completed his education at the college of Dole, he devoted himself for a time to a half-scholastic, half-literary life at Nancy, but in 1774 he found his way to the capital. As an opponent of the

Encyclopaedists An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by artic ...

and a

panegyrist A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of - ' ...

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

, he received considerable pensions. He died 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 ...

in 1780 from the results of a fall from his horse. The

satiric Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or ...

force of one or two of his pieces, as ''Mon Apologie'' (1778) and ''Le Dix-huitième Siècle'' (1775), would alone be sufficient to preserve his reputation, which has been further increased by modern writers, who, like

Alfred de Vigny Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (; 27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticism, Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. Biography Vigny was born in Loches (a town to wh ...

in his ''Stello'' (chaps. 7-13), considered him a victim to the spite of his philosophic opponents. His best-known verses are the ''Ode imitée de plusieurs psaumes'', usually entitled ''Adieux à la vie''. Among his other works may be mentioned ''Les Familles du Darius et d'Eridame, histoire persane'' (1770), ''Le Carnaval des auteurs'' (1773), ''Odes nouvelles et patriotiques'' (1775). Gilbert's ''Œuvres complètes'' were first published in 1788.

References

*
Catholic Encyclopedia article

Complete works scanned on Gallica

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Nicolas-Joseph-Florent 1750 births 1780 deaths People from Vosges (department) French poets French male poets