LATOUCHE

latouche, hyacinthe joseph alexandre thabaud de [known as henri] (1785-1851), french poet and novelist, was born at la chatre (indre) on the 2nd of february 1785. among his works may be distinguished his comedies: _projets de sagesse_ (1811), and, in collaboration with emile deschamps, _selmours de florian_ (1818), which ran for a hundred nights; also _la reine d'espagne_ (1831), which proved too indecent for the public taste; a novel, _fragoletta: naples et paris en 1799_ (1829), which attained a success of notoriety; _la vallee aux coups_ (1833), a volume of prose essays and verse; and two volumes of poems, _les adieux_ (1843) and _les agrestes_ (1844). latouche's chief claim to remembrance is that he revealed to the world the genius of andre chenier, then only known to a limited few. the remains of the poet's work had passed from the hands of daunou to latouche, who had sufficient critical insight instantly to recognize their value. in editing the first selection of chenier's poems (1819) he made some trifling emendations, but did not, as beranger afterwards asserted, make radical and unnecessary changes. latouche was guilty of more than one literary fraud. he caused a licentious story of his own to be attributed to the duchesse de duras, the irreproachable author of _ourika_. he made many enemies by malicious attacks on his contemporaries. the _constitutionnel_ was suppressed in 1817 by the government for an obscure political allusion in an article by latouche. he then undertook the management of the _mercure du xix^e siecle_, and began a bitter warfare against the monarchy. after 1830 he edited the _figaro_, and spared neither the liberal politicians nor the romanticists who triumphed under the monarchy of july. in his turn he was violently attacked by gustave planche in the _revue des deux mondes_ for november 1831. but it must be remembered to the credit of latouche that he did much to encourage george sand at the beginning of her career. the last twenty years of his life were spent in retirement at aulnay, where he died on the 9th of march 1851. sainte-beuve, in the _causeries du lundi_, vol. 3, gives a not too sympathetic portrait of latouche. see also george sand in the _siecle_ for the 18th, 19th and 20th of july 1851.