newspapers. He added cantos to the "Vert-vert," which were less lucky than Pope's additions to the Rape of the Lock. Jean Jacques, on his return from England, visited Gresset. A graceful compliment was paid to Gresset by Bertin in the present of a service of Sèvres china, each piece representing a scene from the "Vert-vert." The old man used to show it with delight, saving, "Voilà mon pöeme, édition de Sèvres."—J. A., D.
GRETRY, André Ernest Modeste, a musician, was born at Liege, February 11, 1741, and died at Montmorency, September 24, 1813. His father played the violin in the collegiate church of St. Denis, in the choir of which institution the boy was placed in 1747. Leclerc, the choir-master, was severe, but young Grétry had so ardent a passion for music, that he forbore to complain of the harsh treatment he received from this disciplinarian, fearing the disclosure of it might induce his father to remove him from the choir. A superstition prevailed at Liege that any prayer would be granted which was offered on the occasion of one's first communion; in this belief, when the young chorister was confirmed, he prayed with all his fervour while taking the sacrament, that he might either die or become distinguished in life. On the same day a heavy beam fell upon him, and so injured him that he was taken up for dead. He regarded this incident as an assurance from heaven that the second alternative of his confirmation prayer would be granted, and was thus convinced that he would become a great musician—a conviction which materially affected his character and influenced his career. His illness, occasioned by the accident, compelled his temporary removal from the choir; during which time he received lessons of Reniken, whose greatly milder manner than that of his former teacher, had so beneficial an effect on his progress that, on his reappearance as a singer, he excited general admiration. He was now placed under Moreau for the study of composition; but he was too eager to write to be able to give due attention to the course of exercises to which his master would have restricted him; and to this impatience of rule is to be ascribed the want of theoretical knowledge that marks all his writings. He composed a mass and six symphonies, which proved his great natural facility; and this so interested one of the canons of the college, that he furnished the young artist with means to go to Rome to pursue his contrapuntal studies. Arrived there in 1759, Grétry placed himself under Casali, from whose teaching he profited no more than from that he had already received. At Rome he made his first dramatic essay in "Le Vendemiatrice," an intermezzo, which was brought out at one of the small theatres in 1765. Being advised that he would find in Paris a better field than in Italy for the exercise of the faculty he had evinced in this little work, he started for the French capital at the beginning of 1767. He rested at Geneva in the hope of inducing Voltaire to furnish him with a libretto for an opera, but without obtaining what he desired. He wrote a piece, however, for the Geneva theatre, which was produced with some success during his stay. He reached Paris at the close of the year, and after some of the difficulties incidental to every stranger in a great metropolis, he obtained the libretto of "Le Huron" from Marmontel, set it to music, and produced it at the Opéra Comique in 1768. This was the commencement of a series of successes of such brilliancy as has scarcely been equalled. Grétry produced fifty operas—the last of which, "Delphis et Mopsa," appeared in 1803—and received during his life such honours as have never been conferred on a living musician. He was created a member of all the artistic and learned institutions which admitted musicians into their fellowship, not in Paris only, but in other cities in and out of France; he received municipal honours from his native town; he was one of the first three men chosen to represent the department of musical composition in the French Institute; he was accorded the decoration of the legion of honour; a street was named after him; his bust was placed on the exterior of one theatre, and his statue in the entrance hall of another. The loss of the several pensions derived from the performance of his works—which he suffered in common with every one so connected with the French theatres, through the disarrangement of affairs by the Revolution—was made up to him by Napoleon, as a tribute to his merit; and, not closing with his life, this series of distinctions was continued in the extraordinary ceremonies of his funeral—the public mass, the many orations over his grave (especially one by Méhul), the special performance at the theatre, and the concert selected from his music; and finally, his heart was disinterred and removed to Liege, the authorities claiming that his native town was the appropriate resting-place for this relic—which claim was the subject of a law-suit as remarkable for its violence as for the cause it contested. In spite of these manifold acknowledgments, Grétry was not a good musician, and, indeed, had so little conscience with regard to his works, that he confided the orchestration of his last twenty operas to his friend Panseron—being incompetent to the task himself, and incapable of the study which alone could fit him for it—and wrote only the voice parts, with an indication of the harmony. Beyond the intrinsic proof in his music that he was deficient in technical skill, there is equal evidence of his want of knowledge in his "Méthode simple," 1802, in which the simplicity of the author is more manifest than that of his system; and further, he was appointed, in deference to his eminent position, inspecteur de l'enseignement at the conservatoire upon its opening in 1795; but resigned the office in a few months, surely not because he found himself more than adequate to its discharge. The first volume of his "Memoires ou Essais sur la Musique," a gossiping self-complacent autobiography, wherein Grétry sets forth his views on the paramount importance of the just declamation of every syllable set to music, was printed in 1789; and the other two volumes, a series of dissertations on the art and matters connected with it, in 1797; this work was really written by Legrand from data furnished him by the reputed author. Grétry issued also a political tract, "La Verité," in which his republican tenets are avowed; and he occupied his last years with another literary effort, "Reflexions d'un Solitaire," which his friends did not deem it expedient to bring before the world. Two of his operas, "Zémire et Azor," 1771, and "Richard Cœur de Lion," 1785, have been adapted to the English stage; and his "Giauque Tell," 1791, created some interest on its revival in Paris, when Rossini produced his opera of the same name.—His daughter, Lucille, born in 1770, produced two successful operas, the first at thirteen years of age. She died in 1792.—G. A. M.
* GRETSCH, Nikolai Ivanovitch, a celebrated Russian writer and statesman, born 3rd August (old style), 1787, at St. Petersburg. He was descended from an old Bohemian family, and, after studying at a school of law, entered the university of his native city. From 1809 to 1813 he was professor of Russian literature at the German high school of St. Petersburg. He began to write at an early period, his "Tables of Declensions and Conjugations" having appeared in 1809-11. In 1812 he founded, and until 1818 edited, a weekly journal, the Suin Oletchestva, or Son of the Country. From 1813 to 1816 he was professor at the St. Petersburg gymnasium; but in 1817 his health compelled him to retire from the work of teaching, and he was appointed honorary librarian of the imperial library. He then travelled in Germany and France, and made himself master of the Lancasterian system, which, on his return home, he introduced into various public schools. In 1824 he withdrew from public duties, and was named associate councillor. He now gave himself wholly to literature; but in 1830 he was made councillor of state and a minister of the interior. In 1827 he wrote an account of the principal Russian writers, and soon after a "Practical Russian Grammar." In 1825 he took part in founding the Russian journal, the Northern Bee. In 1830 he published his "Manual of Russian Literature." In 1831 he published his "Escape of a Russian to Germany;" in 1834, the "Black Woman;" and an "Essay on the History of Russian Literature." In 1836 he was attached to the ministry of finance, and visited England, France, and Germany, where he inspected the principal industrial schools and mechanics' institutions. In 1838 he was made a councillor of state. In 1839 he delivered at St. Petersburg a course of lectures on Russian literature, which were published in 1841, in which year his health took him to Germany, Italy, and France. He returned to Russia in 1844. He wrote three volumes of "Letters on a Journey in England, France, and Germany," which were published in 1838; and he afterwards wrote "Letters on Travel in Germany and Italy," which appeared in three volumes in 1843. Besides the works already named, Gretsch has written, by direction of the Grand-duke Michael Pawlovitsch, a "Comparative Grammar of Russian, German, and French" for use in military schools. He undertook the direction of the Russian Conversations Lexicon, of which he superintended the first six volumes and a half. He compiled a Military Dictionary in connection with General Von Seddeler. While in Germany he had a dispute with the editor of Literary Sketches
