Born, 1750; died, 1828.
Son of a schoolmaster in Lorraine, Nicholas François was educated at
a Jesuit College, where he was known as “the Infant Prodigy.” At the
age of fourteen he published a volume of poems and fables, imitations
of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil; and was crowned by the Academy of Dijon.
Voltaire, then seventy-two years of age, invited the youthful genius
to Ferney, and wished to make him his private secretary (1767), but
the Comte de Henin, who was the patron of François, insisted upon his
_protégé_ leaving Ferney and accepting a post in the magistracy.
The town of Neufchâteau solemnly adopted their illustrious young
citizen, who from thenceforward added the name of Neufchâteau to that
of François.
He was brought under the notice of Maréchal de Costires, then Minister
of Marine, who appointed François Procurator to the General Council in
the Colony of St. Domingo, now the Island of Hayti.
After spending five years in the West Indies, the young magistrate
obtained leave of absence, and started for France, bringing with him
the literary work of five years, including a complete translation of
the works of Ariosto. His ship was wrecked, and he was cast on a desert
island; all his manuscripts going down with the ill-fated vessel.
François Neufchâteau considered this loss to be the great catastrophe
of his life. He was finally rescued, reaching France in safety, and
receiving a pension of 3000 livres (£120), proposed to devote his life
to literature and poetry.
The events of 1789 altered the current of his existence. He was elected
a member of the Assembly, and the following year sent as Commissionary
to the Vosges for the organisation of that new Department.
He was eventually appointed President of the first Legislative Assembly.
He refused the Ministry of Justice, choosing instead the humbler but
safer position of _juge de paix_ in the Department of Vosges.
His friends persuaded him to return to Paris to superintend the
rehearsal of his play “Pamela” (translated from one of Goldoni’s
comedies) at the Théâtre Français. Produced on August 1, 1793, this
innocent and simple drama achieved an immense success, and was played
for eight consecutive nights. The curtain was just about to rise upon
the ninth performance, when a message from the Committee of Public
Safety arrived to stop the play, the author was summoned before
the Committee the same evening, and ordered to bring with him the
manuscript of the piece. Neufchâteau submitted humbly to all demands as
to corrections and excisions, altered, as desired, the fourth and fifth
acts of the play, and even gave it a different ending. Robespierre
and his Council permitted the performance of the revised play. It was
reproduced September 1, and again ran for eight nights; upon the ninth
evening this verse was applauded:--
Ah! les persécuteurs sont les seuls condamnable,
Et les plus tolérants sont les plus raisonnable.
Before the play was finished, the Committee of Public Safety served the
following order at the Théâtre Français:
“The _Théâtre Français_ is to be immediately closed, the actors,
actresses, and _employées_ arrested, together with the author of
‘Pamela,’ and conveyed to the Prison of La Force.”
In this prison Neufchâteau remained eleven months, until August 4,
1794, when he was released, and shortly afterwards appointed Judge
of the High Court during the Directorate, after being Governmental
Commissionary for some time in the district of the Vosges. He became
Minister of the Interior in 1797. In all these appointments he gave
many proofs of capacity, judgment, moderation, and kindliness of heart.
When the Consulate was established he was not only made a Senator,
but occupied the Presidential Chair of the Senate until 1808, when
he abandoned politics for scientific and literary pursuits. He was
deprived of his peerage (Napoleon had made him a Count of the Empire)
at the Restoration, but allowed to retain his membership of the Academy.
Although married four times, he left only one surviving son. A painful
malady rendered Neufchâteau a helpless invalid for the last ten years
of his life, but he retained his lively philosophic character to the
last, and was constantly surrounded by friends and admirers, who
enjoyed his witty as well as learned conversation. He continued his
literary work until his death.
His moral tales, poems, and philosophical and historical treatises are
now forgotten; but his writings upon scientific agriculture are still
consulted by experts in that science.