Placide Cappeau (25 October 1808 – 8 August 1877) was a French poet and the author of the poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (1847), set to music by

Adolphe Adam Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and ''Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas ''Le post ...

and known in English as "

O Holy Night "O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a sacred song about the night of the birth of Jesus Christ, described in the first verse as "the dear Saviour", and frequently performed as a Christmas carol. Based on the French-language poem ''Minuit, ch ...

" or "Cantique de Noël".

Biography

He was born on 25 October 1808 in Roquemaure (Gard). He was the son of Mathieu Cappeau, a cooper, and Agathe Louise (née Martinet). He was expected to follow his father in the family business (

vinification Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. There is ...

and

cooperage A cooper is a craftsman who produces wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs, and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable. Journeymen coopers also traditionally made w ...

), but after an accident, he turned to the life of an academic. While he was at play as an eight-year-old, his friend Brignon was handling a gun and shot Cappeau in the hand. Cappeau's hand was amputated. With the financial support of Brignon's father, who supplied half the tuition, Cappeau attended a town school and then the Collège Royal d'

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

. There he was awarded the first prize in drawing in 1825. After studying in

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

, where he received a ''baccalauréat littéraire'' (A level in literature), he studied law in Paris and was awarded a license to practice law in 1831. Following in his father's footsteps, he became a merchant of wines and spirits. Cappeau's was known locally as a poet. On a business trip to Paris in December 1847, at the request of his local priest, he composed his Christmas-themed text and, as his local priest had requested, presented it to Adam to set it to music, the request based on their shared acquaintance with a singer, a certain Madame Laurey, who was then living near Roquemaure where her husband, a civil engineer, was supervising the construction of a bridge. He later said he wrote the poem "Minuit, chrétiens" in a stagecoach en route to Paris, between

Mâcon Mâcon (), historically Anglicization, anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home t ...

and

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

Alphonse de 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 ...

dubbed the resulting carol "la Marseillaise religieuse" (The religious

Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. It was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by the First French Republic against Austria, and was originally titled "". The French Nati ...

). Cappeau's other works include the 4000-line philosophical poem ''Le château de Roquemaure'' (1876), ''Le roi de la fève'', ''La poésie'', ''Le papillon'' and ''La rose''. He wrote in Provençal as well as in French. He was a friend of some of the great writers of the ''

Félibrige The ''Félibrige'' (; in classical Occitan, in Mistralian spelling, ) is a literary and cultural association founded in 1854 by Frédéric Mistral and other Provençal writers to defend and promote the Occitan language (also called the ) and ...

'', including

Frédéric Mistral Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral (; , 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was an Occitan writer and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language. He received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of the fresh origina ...

Joseph Roumanille Joseph Roumanille (; 8 August 1818 – 24 May 1891) was a Provençal poet. He was born at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), and is commonly known in southern France as the father of the Félibrige, for he first conceived the idea of r ...

, and

Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ' ...

. He knew Alphonse de Lamartine as well. Late in life he apostatized and adopted views as a non-Christian and freethinker that were at odds with his fame as the author of a Christmas text. Cappeau opposed slavery and inequality in all forms and was sympathetic to socialism. He died on 8 August 1877 in Roquemaure at the age of 68. He was buried in his family's crypt in Roquemaure cemetery.

References

Bibliography

* Durieu (abbé René), ''L'auteur du "Minuit chrétiens", Placide Cappeau'', Nîmes, Lacour, 1996.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cappeau, Placide 1808 births 1877 deaths French male poets 19th-century French poets 19th-century French male writers People from Gard French amputees French writers with disabilities