Pierre François Tissot
Encyclopedia
Pierre François Tissot (20 March 1768 - 7 April 1854) was a French
man of letters
and politician.
to a native of Savoy
, who was a perfumer appointed by royal warrant to the court. At the age of eighteen he entered the service of a solicitor
of the Châtelet
, in order to learn the practice of the law, but he was more attracted to literature, and, as a handsome youth, was occasionally invited to the fête
s of the Petit Trianon
.
, in spite of the fact that it had ruined his family. While with the solicitor he had made the acquaintance of Alexandre Goujon
, and they soon became close friends - he married Goujon's sister, Sophie (on 5 March 1793), and when his brother-in-law was elected deputy to the National Convention
and sent as a representative-on-mission to the Revolutionary Armies
of the Moselle
and Rhine, Tissot went with him as his secretary. He then returned to Paris
and resumed his more modest position of Secrétaire Général des Subsistences.
On the insurrection of Prairial 1 1795 (carried out against the Thermidorian Reaction
), he tried in vain to save Goujon, who had been involved in the proscription of the "last Montagnards
"; all he could do was to give Goujon the knife with which he killed himself in order to escape the guillotine
, and he afterwards avenged his memory in the Souvenirs de Prairial. He also took under his care Goujon's widow and children. His connection with the Jacobin party
caused him to be condemned to deportation after the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise
, but Napoleon Bonaparte
, having been persuaded to read his translation of the Eclogues of Virgil
, struck his name off the list.
- he celebrated in verse several of the emperor's victories, and the arrival in France of Marie Louise
(1810). Prior to this moment, he had lived on the income derived from a factory of horn lanterns in the Faubourg
Saint Antoine; finally in fairly comfortable circumstances, he devoted himself to literature. Jacques Delille
took him as his assistant at the Collège de France
, and Tissot succeeded him as head of it (1813); Napoleon signed the appointment as a reward for a poem composed by Tissot on his victory in the Battle of Lützen
.
, had ventured to say that the Convention had saved France and vanquished the First Coalition
during the French Revolutionary Wars
.
Deprived of his post, Tissot was left still more free to attack the government in the press. He was one of the founders of the newspaper Le Constitutionnel, and of the review, the Minerve. Without laying stress on his literary works (Traité de la poésie latine, 1821; translation of the Bucolics, 3rd ed., 1823; Études sur Virgile, 1825) we should mention the Mémoires historiques et militaires sur Carnot (on Lazare Carnot
, which he based on the papers left by the "Organizer of Victory"; 1824), the Discours du Général Foy (1826) and a Histoire de la guerre de la Péninsule - both inspired by General Foy
(1827).
On the overthrow of Charles X
(the July Revolution
), Tissot made a successful effort to regain his position at the Collège de France; under the July Monarchy
, he was also elected as a member of the Académie française
on the death of Bon-Joseph Dacier
(1833). It was then that he published his chief works: Histoire de Napoléon (2 vols., 1833), and Histoire complète de la révolution française de 1789 à 1806 (6 vols., 1833–1836), comprising several inconsistencies and omissions, but containing a number of the author's reminiscences (in some places they become practically memoir
s, and are consequently of real value).
In 1840 a carriage accident almost cost him his sight; he had to find an assistant, and passed the last years of his life in circumstances of increasing suffering, amid which, however, he preserved his optimism. He died in Paris.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
man of letters
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
and politician.
Early life
He was born in VersaillesVersailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
to a native of Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
, who was a perfumer appointed by royal warrant to the court. At the age of eighteen he entered the service of a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
of the Châtelet
Place du Châtelet
The Place du Châtelet is a public square in Paris, on the right bank of the river Seine, on the borderline between the 1st and 4th arrondissements...
, in order to learn the practice of the law, but he was more attracted to literature, and, as a handsome youth, was occasionally invited to the fête
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
s of the Petit Trianon
Petit Trianon
The Petit Trianon is a small château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France.-Design and construction:...
.
Revolution
Tissot devoted himself to the cause of the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, in spite of the fact that it had ruined his family. While with the solicitor he had made the acquaintance of Alexandre Goujon
Jean-Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon
Jean Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon was a politician of the French Revolution. He was the brother-in-law of Pierre François Tissot.-Early life:...
, and they soon became close friends - he married Goujon's sister, Sophie (on 5 March 1793), and when his brother-in-law was elected deputy to the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
and sent as a representative-on-mission to the Revolutionary Armies
French Revolutionary Army
The French Revolutionary Army is the term used to refer to the military of France during the period between the fall of the ancien regime under Louis XVI in 1792 and the formation of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary...
of the Moselle
Moselle River
The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a left tributary of the Rhine, joining the Rhine at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Mosel through the Our....
and Rhine, Tissot went with him as his secretary. He then returned to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and resumed his more modest position of Secrétaire Général des Subsistences.
On the insurrection of Prairial 1 1795 (carried out against the Thermidorian Reaction
Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just de Richebourg and several other leading members of the Terror...
), he tried in vain to save Goujon, who had been involved in the proscription of the "last Montagnards
The Mountain
The Mountain refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly...
"; all he could do was to give Goujon the knife with which he killed himself in order to escape the guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
, and he afterwards avenged his memory in the Souvenirs de Prairial. He also took under his care Goujon's widow and children. His connection with the Jacobin party
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
caused him to be condemned to deportation after the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise
Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise
The plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, also known as the Machine infernale plot, was an assassination attempt on the life of the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in Paris on 24 December 1800...
, but Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, having been persuaded to read his translation of the Eclogues of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, struck his name off the list.
Empire
Although still a partisan of the French Republic, Tissot became an admirer of the First Consul, and then of Napoléon as head of the French EmpireFirst French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
- he celebrated in verse several of the emperor's victories, and the arrival in France of Marie Louise
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
Marie Louise of Austria was the second wife of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and later Duchess of Parma...
(1810). Prior to this moment, he had lived on the income derived from a factory of horn lanterns in the Faubourg
Faubourg
Faubourg is an ancient French term approximating "suburb" . The earliest form is Forsbourg, derived from Latin foris, 'out of', and Vulgar Latin burgum, 'town' or 'fortress'...
Saint Antoine; finally in fairly comfortable circumstances, he devoted himself to literature. Jacques Delille
Jacques Delille
Jacques Delille was a French poet and translator. He was born at Aigueperse in Auvergne.-Life:He was an illegitimate child, and was descended by his mother from the chancellor De l'Hôpital. He was educated at the College of Lisieux in Paris and became an elementary teacher...
took him as his assistant at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
, and Tissot succeeded him as head of it (1813); Napoleon signed the appointment as a reward for a poem composed by Tissot on his victory in the Battle of Lützen
Battle of Lützen (1813)
In the Battle of Lützen , Napoleon I of France lured a combined Prussian and Russian force into a trap, halting the advances of the Sixth Coalition after his devastating losses in Russia. The Russian commander, Prince Peter Wittgenstein, attempting to undo Napoleon's capture of Leipzig, attacked...
.
Restoration and July Monarchy
He was removed from this post, however, in 1821, following the publication of a Précis sur les guerres de la Révolution, which, in the context of the Bourbon RestorationBourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
, had ventured to say that the Convention had saved France and vanquished the First Coalition
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
during the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
.
Deprived of his post, Tissot was left still more free to attack the government in the press. He was one of the founders of the newspaper Le Constitutionnel, and of the review, the Minerve. Without laying stress on his literary works (Traité de la poésie latine, 1821; translation of the Bucolics, 3rd ed., 1823; Études sur Virgile, 1825) we should mention the Mémoires historiques et militaires sur Carnot (on Lazare Carnot
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Comte Carnot , the Organizer of Victory in the French Revolutionary Wars, was a French politician, engineer, and mathematician.-Education and early life:...
, which he based on the papers left by the "Organizer of Victory"; 1824), the Discours du Général Foy (1826) and a Histoire de la guerre de la Péninsule - both inspired by General Foy
Maximilien Sebastien Foy
Maximilien Sébastien Foy was a French military leader, statesman and writer.-Revolution:He was born in Ham, Somme, and educated in the military school of La Fere, and made sub-lieutenant of artillery in 1792. He was present at the battles of Valmy and Jemappes, and in 1793 obtained a company, as...
(1827).
On the overthrow of Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
(the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
), Tissot made a successful effort to regain his position at the Collège de France; under the July Monarchy
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
, he was also elected as a member of the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
on the death of Bon-Joseph Dacier
Bon-Joseph Dacier
Bon Joseph Dacier was a French historian, philologist and translator from ancient Greek. He became a Chevalier de l'Empire , then Baron de l'Empire...
(1833). It was then that he published his chief works: Histoire de Napoléon (2 vols., 1833), and Histoire complète de la révolution française de 1789 à 1806 (6 vols., 1833–1836), comprising several inconsistencies and omissions, but containing a number of the author's reminiscences (in some places they become practically memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s, and are consequently of real value).
In 1840 a carriage accident almost cost him his sight; he had to find an assistant, and passed the last years of his life in circumstances of increasing suffering, amid which, however, he preserved his optimism. He died in Paris.