René de Chazet, full name René André Polydore Balthazar Alissan de Chazet, (23 October 1774 – 23 August 1844) was a French playwright, poet and novelist.

Short biography

The son of an annuities controller, parent of Mackau, the ambassador of Naples, he accompanied him to Italy in 1792 and returned to France only in 1797. He collaborated with many newspapers and became known for his numerous plays, many of which written in collaboration with Charles-Augustin Sewrin. These plays were given in the most important Parisian stages of the first half of the XIXe century: Théâtre des Variétés, Comédie-Française, Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Théâtre du Vaudeville etc.

He competed in 1808 at the Académie française and won the first runner with his Éloge de Pierre Corneille. In 1814, he was pensioned by Louis XVIII, made a chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and appointed librarian of the king, then Finance receiver, a position he lost in 1830 when the regime fell.

Works

He wrote 436 plays including:

Bibliography

• François-Xavier Feller, Charles Weiss, Biographie universelle, 1848, p. 586-587
• J. Goizet, A. Burtal, Dictionnaire universel du Théâtre en France et du théatre français, vol.2, 1867, p. 28-33
• Dictionnaire de biographie française, vol.8, Letouzay, 1959, p. 962
• David Chaillou, Napoléon et l'Opéra: La politique sur la scène (1810–1815), 2004

External links

• René de Chazet on data.bnf.fr