CHÉNIER (ANDRE MARIE DE

Far more celebrated than bis brother Joseph whose republican opinions he did not share, André Chénier showed during the reign of Terror a courage which reflects upon him the greatest crédit ; and notwithstanding the guillotine en permanetice, he boldly summoned

"...la rage D'un peuple abject, servile et fécond en outrage, Et qui se croit encore et libre et souverain." He expired on the scaffold just before the catastrophe of Thermidor. Deeply imbued with the spirit of Greek literature, André Chénier contrived to be one of the most original poets that France can boast of. No one has thrown greater variety into the usually tedious French Alexandrine, no one has expressed deeper feeling in more harmonious language. His '■'■Jeune captive''^ written within the walls of the Conciergerie, and inspired by one of his fellow-prisoners, Mademoiselle de Coïgny, is an exquisite pièce of elegiac composition. As, in company with his friend Roucher, he descended the stone staircase of his prison, to go to the guillotine, he was seen to strike his brow with his hand, and heard to exclaim : "Pourtant, j'avais quelque chose là !"