Alfred-Victor, Count de Vigny, was born in Loches, Touraine, March 27,
1797. His father was an army officer, wounded in the Seven Years' War.
Alfred, after having been well educated, also selected a military career
and received a commission in the "Mousquetaires Rouges," in 1814, when
barely seventeen. He served until 1827, "twelve long years of peace,"
then resigned. Already in 1822 appeared a volume of 'Poemes' which was
hardly noticed, although containing poetry since become important to the
evolution of French verse: 'La Neige, le Coy, le Deluge, Elva, la
Frigate', etc., again collected in 'Poemes antiques et modernes' (1826).
Other poems were published after his death in 'Les Destinies' (1864).

Under the influence of Walter Scott, he wrote a historical romance in
1826, 'Cinq-Mars, ou une Conjuration sans Louis XIII'. It met with the
most brilliant and decided success and was crowned by the Academy. Cinq-
Mars will always be remembered as the earliest romantic novel in France
and the greatest and most dramatic picture of Richelieu now extant. De
Vigny was a convinced Anglophile, well acquainted with the writings of
Shakespeare and Milton, Byron, Wordsworth, Shelley, Matthew Arnold, and
Leopardi. He also married an English lady in 1825--Lydia Bunbury.

Other prose works are 'Stello' (1832), in the manner of Sterne and
Diderot, and 'Servitude et Grandeur militaire' (1835), the language of
which is as caustic as that of Merimee. As a dramatist, De Vigny
produced a translation of 'Othello--Le More de Venice' (1829); also 'La
Marechale d'Ancre' (1832); both met with moderate success only. But a
decided "hit" was 'Chatterton' (1835), an adaption from his prose-work
'Stello, ou les Diables bleus'; it at once established his reputation on
the stage; the applause was most prodigious, and in the annals of the
French theatre can only be compared with that of 'Le Cid'. It was a
great victory for the Romantic School, and the type of Chatterton, the