FRERON

freron, elie catherine (1719-1776), french critic and controversialist, was born at quimper in 1719. he was educated by the jesuits, and made such rapid progress in his studies that before the age of twenty he was appointed professor at the college of louis-le-grand. he became a contributor to the _observations sur les ecrits modernes_ of the abbe guyot desfontaines. the very fact of his collaboration with desfontaines, one of voltaire's bitterest enemies, was sufficient to arouse the latter's hostility, and although freron had begun his career as one of his admirers, his attitude towards voltaire soon changed. freron in 1746 founded a similar journal of his own, entitled _lettres de la comtesse de_.... it was suppressed in 1749, but he immediately replaced it by _lettres sur quelques ecrits de ce temps_, which, with the exception of a short suspension in 1752, on account of an attack on the character of voltaire, was continued till 1754, when it was succeeded by the more ambitious _annee litteraire_. his death at paris on the 10th of march 1776 is said to have been hastened by the temporary suppression of this journal. freron is now remembered solely for his attacks on voltaire and the encyclopaedists, and by the retaliations they provoked on the part of voltaire, who, besides attacking him in epigrams, and even incidentally in some of his tragedies, directed against him a virulent satire, _le pauvre diable_, and made him the principal personage in a comedy _l'ecossaise_, in which the journal of freron is designated _l'ane litteraire_. a further attack on freron entitled _anecdotes sur freron_ ... (1760), published anonymously, is generally attributed to voltaire. freron was the author of _ode sur la bataille de fontenoy_ (1745); _histoire de marie stuart_ (1742, 2 vols.); and _histoire de l'empire d'allemagne_, (1771, 8 vols.). see ch. nisard, _les ennemis de voltaire_ (1853); despois, _journalistes et journaux du xviii^e siecle_; barthelemy, _les confessions de freron_: ch. monselet, _freron, ou l'illustre critique_ (1864); _freron, sa vie, souvenirs_, &c. (1876).