A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Rouget de Lisle, Claude

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A Dictionary of Music and Musicians
edited by George Grove
Rouget de Lisle, Claude
2694945A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Rouget de Lisle, Claude


ROUGET DE LISLE, Claude Joseph, author of the Marseillaise, born at Montaigu, Lons-le-Saulnier, May 10, 1760. He entered the School of Royal Engineers ('Ecole royale du génie') at Mezières in 1782, and left it two years later with the rank of 'aspirant-lieutenant.' Early in 1789 he was made second lieutenant, and quartered at Joux, near Besançon. At Besançon, a few days after the taking of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), he wrote his first patriotic song to the tune of a favourite air. In 1790 he rose to be first lieutenant, and was moved to Strassburg, where he soon became very popular in the triple capacity of poet, violin-player, and singer. His hymn, 'à la Liberté' composed by Ignace Pleyel, was sung at Strassburg at the fete of Sept. 25, 1791. While there he wrote three pieces for the theatre, one of which, 'Bayard en Bresse,' was produced at Paris Feb. 21, 1791, but without success. In April 1792 he wrote the Marseillaise, of which an account has been given elsewhere. [See vol. ii. p. 219.] As the son of royalist parents, and himself belonging to the constitutional party, Rouget de Lisle refused to take the oath to the constitution abolishing the crown; he was therefore stripped of his military rank, denounced, and imprisoned, only to escape after the fall of Robespierre. After this he re-entered the army, and made the campaign of La Vendée under General Hoche; was wounded, and at length, under the Consulate, returned to private life at Montaigu, where he remained in the depth of solitude and of poverty till the second Restoration. His brother then sold the little family property, and Rouget was driven to Paris; and there would have starved but for a small pension granted by Louis XVIII. and continued by Louis Philippe, and for the care of his friends Béranger, David d'Angers, and especially M. and Mad. Voiart, in whose house at Choisy-le-Roi he died, June 27, 1836.

Besides the works already mentioned, he published in 1797 a volume of 'Essais en vers et en prose' (Paris, F. Didot, an V de la République) dedicated to Méhul, and now extremely rare; so also is his 'Cinquante chants Français' (1825, 4to.), with PF. accompaniment. One of these songs, 'Roland à Roncevaux,' was written in 1792, and its refrain—

Mourir pour la patrie,
C'est le sort le plus beau, le plus digne d'envie—

was borrowed by the authors of the 'Chant des Girondins,' which was set to music by Varney, and played a distinguished part in the Revolution of 1848. [See Varney.] [App. p.766 "omit the reference to Varney."] The 'Cinquante chants' is his most important work, but we must not omit to mention two others, 'Macbeth,' a lyrical tragedy (1827, 8vo), and 'Relation du désastre de Quiberon,' in vol. ii. of the 'Mémoires de tous.'

There exists a fine medallion of Rouget by David d'Angers, which is engraved in a pamphlet by his nephew, entitled 'La vérite sur la paternité de la Marseillaise' (Paris, 1865). Statues will probably be erected to him at Lons-le-Saulnier, and at Choisy le Roi. See the volume of M. Le Roy de Ste.Croix (Strassburg, 1880).
[ G. C. ]