Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
| Sébastien-Roch Nicolas | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
6 April 1741 Clermont-Ferrand, France |
| Died | 13 April 1794 (aged 53) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Wounds suffered during a suicide attempt |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Playwright, writer |
| Known for | Witty epigrams and aphorisms |
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, also known as Chamfort (French: [ʃɑ̃fɔʁ]; 6 April 1741 – 13 April 1794), was a French writer, best known for his witty epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's sister, and of the Jacobin club.
Chamfort was born Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme on 6 April 1741, according to a baptismal certificate from Saint-Genès parish in Clermont-Ferrand, to a grocer named Nicolas. On 22 June, a second birth certificate gives him the name « Sébastien Roch » from «unknown parents ». A journey to Paris resulted in the boy obtaining a bursary at the Collège des Grassins. He worked hard, although one of his most contemptuous epigrams reads: Ce que j'ai appris je ne le sais plus; le peu que je sais encore, je l'ai deviné ("What I learned I no longer know; the little I still know, I guessed"). When the principal of the College promised Chamfort a benefice, he replied that he could not accept because he preferred honour to honours, j'aime l'honneur et non les honneurs. About this time he assumed the name of Chamfort.
For some time he subsisted by teaching and hack writing. His good looks and ready wit brought him attention; but, though endowed with immense physical strength—Madame de Craon called him "Hercule sous la figure d'Adonis" — he lived so hard that he was glad to have the opportunity to do a cure at Spa when the Belgian minister in Paris, M. van Eyck, invited Chamfort to accompany him to Germany in 1761. On his return to Paris, Chamfort produced a successful comedy, La Jeune Indienne (1764), following it with a series of epistles in verse, essays and odes. However, his literary reputation was not established until 1769, when the Académie française awarded him a prize for his Eloge on Molière.
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