Ch�nier, (Marie) Andr� 1762-94
French poet

Born in Constantinople (Istanbul), he was the third son of the French consul-general and a Greek mother. At the age of three he was sent to France, and at 12 was placed at the Coll�ge de Navarre, Paris, where Greek literature was his special subject. At 20 he joined the army, and served for six months in Strasbourg, but he returned to Paris to study, and wrote his famous idylls Le Mendiant ('The Beggar') and L'Aveugle ('The Blind Man'). He travelled in Switzerland, Italy and the Greek Islands, returned to Paris in 1786 and began several poems, most of which remained fragments. The most noteworthy are Suzanne, L'Invention and Herm�s, the last being an imitation of Lucretius. In 1787 he went to England as secretary to the French ambassador, and in 1790 he returned again to Paris, at first supporting the Revolution but later offending Robespierre by political pamphlets promoting liberal monarchism. He was thrown into prison, and six months later was guillotined, three days before the end of the Reign of Terror. Almost nothing was published in his lifetime, but the appearance of his collected poems in 1819 made a notable impression on subsequent French poetry.

Bibliography: V Loggins, Andr� Ch�nier, his life, death and glory (1965)