Louis-Jean-Népomucène Lemercier
Louis-Jean-Népomucène Lemercier was a prominent French dramatist born in Paris in 1771, known for his complex and often controversial contributions to theatre during a time of significant political turmoil in France. A neoclassicist, he rejected the emerging Romanticism movement, yet he frequently deviated from traditional neoclassical rules in his works. Lemercier began writing at a young age, achieving early success with his five-act play "Méléagre" when he was just seventeen. He faced challenges in his career, with many of his plays being banned or closed prematurely due to the political climate.
His relationship with Emperor Napoleon I was notably ambivalent; Lemercier refused to alter the ending of his play "Charlemagne" to align with Napoleon's vision, resulting in its delayed performance until after the Bourbon monarchy was restored. Despite the ups and downs, he became a member of the prestigious French Academy in 1810 and remained active in literary circles. Lemercier's life was marked by both literary achievement and political strife, leading him to flee France in 1792, only to return two years later. He passed away in 1840, leaving behind a legacy as a man of virtue and a dedicated literary figure.
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Subject Terms
Louis-Jean-Népomucène Lemercier
Poet
- Born: April 21, 1771
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Died: June 7, 1840
Biography
Dramatist Louis-Jean-Népomucène Lemercier was among the more controversial and contradictory writers in France when the country seethed with political unrest. A neoclassicist who spurned Romanticism, he nevertheless frequently departed from the neoclassical stricture of the unity of time and place in his plays.
Lemercier was born in Paris in 1771 to Louis and Marguerite- Ursule Pigory de Lavault Lemercier. He was one of two children, but his brother died at an early age. The day after his birth, the infant was farmed out to a wet nurse, after which his care was the responsibility of a governess. He and his brother attended the Collège de Lisieux, where their private tutor taught them.
Gifted in art, Lemercier studied painting with artist Jacques- Louis David, but was forced to give up painting because his right arm was injured. When he was sixteen, Lemercier wrote a five-act play, Méléagre, and submitted it to the reading committee of the Théâtre-Français. Reluctant to believe that this play was the work of a sixteen- year-old, the committee asked the lad to make on-the-spot revisions of his script, which he did immediately. As a result, the Théâtre-Français added the play to its repertoire and, at the urging of Lemercier’s godmother, Princess de Lamballe, staged the play when Lemercier was seventeen. In 1792, Lemercier’s play, Clarisse Harlowe, based on Samuel Richardson’s popular epistolary novel, was produced. He continued to write plays, however, the political situation in France resulted in many of his dramas being banned or forced to close after only a few performances.
Lemercier had an ambivalent relationship with Emperor Napoleon I and his wife, Joséphine. In 1802, he read the couple a draft of his play Charlemagne. Napoleon, who at this time was consolidating his military forces to become emperor, wanted Lemercier to change the ending so that Charlemagne would become Holy Roman Emperor. Lemercier refused, and his play was not performed until 1816, after the Bourbon monarchy was restored to the French throne. Lemercier wrote a prescient letter to Napoleon warning him of the hazards of unbridled ambition. After Napoleon attended the seventh performance of Lemercier’s Plaute: Ou, La Comédie latine in 1808, he ordered the play closed because it referred to the protagonist’s being robbed by a prince. Napoleon took these references as an indirect comment on the confiscation of Lemercier’s land by the French government.
In 1810, Lemercier was given membership in the prestigious French Academy, in which he played an active role throughout the rest of his life, waging a fruitless battle to keep author Victor Hugo from being elected a member. In 1833, while he was working on Alminti: Ou, Le Mariage sacrilège, roman physiologique (1834), his only novel, he sought an appointment to the chair in literature at the Collège de France, but he was not granted this post, largely for political reasons.
Lemercier had a fruitful but bumpy career. In 1792, he fled France to escape the country’s political upheavals. He returned in 1794 and spent the remainder of his life in France, dividing his time between his homes in Normandy and Paris. He died in 1840, two hours after writing his own epitaph: “He was a man of virtue and cultivated literature.”