Author: Saint Lambert, Jean-Francois de
Biography:
SAINT LAMBERT, Jean François de (1716-1803: NBG)
He was born into minor French nobility at Nancy, Lorraine, on 26 Dec. 1716 and educated by Jesuits at Pont-à-Mousson—evidently a worldly order that introduced pupils to the early writings of Voltaire (q.v.) as well as to the Latin classics. On leaving school he became an infantry officer and was stationed at the court of the King of Poland at Lunéville. There he met Voltaire and his mistress, the marquise du Châtelet. She died in 1749 giving birth to Saint Lambert’s child. Voltaire nevertheless encouraged his protégé, who left for Paris and began to make a mark with his poems. There he moved in the circles of the radical encyclopédistes and began a liaison with Sophie, countess d’Houdetot (1730-1813)—also a poet—that lasted the rest of his life. A brief period when he saw action as a colonel in the army ended after a sudden attack of paralysis (from which he recovered), and he returned to Paris, where a volume of poems was well received in 1764 and Les Saisons (The Seasons) of 1769 won him extravagant praise from Voltaire and a place in the Académie française in 1770. During the Revolution he retired to a house in the country at Eaubonne, near his mistress. His final published work was the Catéchisme universel (1798). In 1800 he returned to Paris to support attempts to bring back the Académie but by the time it was successfully integrated into the new Institut de France in Jan. 1803, he was suffering from senility. He died on 9 Feb. 1803 when, as the newspapers noted, Paris was enduring such an extreme cold snap that the Seine froze over. (NBG 43, cols. 53-6; findmypast.com 13 Sept. 2024; True Briton 17 Feb. 1803) HJ
Other Names:
- Monsieur St. Lambert