DUPONT

dupont, pierre (1821-1870), french song-writer, the son of a blacksmith, was born at lyons on the 23rd of april 1821. his parents both died before he was five years old, and he was brought up in the country by his godfather, a village priest. he was educated at the seminary of l'argentiere, and was afterwards apprenticed to a notary at lyons. in 1839 he found his way to paris, and some of his poems were inserted in the _gazette de france_ and the _quotidienne_. two years later he was saved from the conscription and enabled to publish his first volume--_les deux anges_--through the exertions of a kinsman and of pierre lebrun. in 1842 he received a prize from the academy, and worked for some time on the official dictionary. gounod's appreciation of his peasant song, _j'ai deux grands boeufs dans mon etable_ (1846), settled his vocation as a song-writer. he had no theoretical knowledge of music, but he composed both the words and the melodies of his songs, the two processes being generally simultaneous. he himself remained so innocent of musical knowledge that he had to engage ernest reyer to write down his airs. he sang his own songs, as they were composed, at the workmen's concerts in the salle de la fraternite du faubourg saint-denis; the public performance of his famous _le pain_ was forbidden; _le chant des ouvriers_ was even more popular; and in 1851 he paid the penalty of having become the poet laureate of the socialistic aspirations of the time by being condemned to seven years of exile from france. the sentence was cancelled, and the poet withdrew for a time from participation in politics. he died at lyons, where his later years were spent, on the 24th of july 1870. his songs have appeared in various forms--_chants et chansons_ (3 vols., with music, 1852-1854), _chants et poesies_ (7th edition, 1862), &c. among the best-known are _le braconnier_, _le tisserand_, _la vache blanche_, _la chanson du ble_, but many others might be mentioned of equal spontaneity and charm. his later works have not the same merit. see also sainte-beuve, _causeries du lundi_, iv.; ch. baudelaire, _notice sur p. dupont_ (1849); dechaut, _biographie de pierre dupont_ (1871); and ch. lenient, _poesie patriotique en france_ (1889), ii. 352 et seq.