and grandfather of George Sand). The romance of Marie with Colardeau—a penniless poet—was an all too brief interlude, and poor Charles-Pierre was first requested "to leave for two years" to make way for a richer protector and then finally returned to his desk. The chronicle of Mémoires ... for the year of his death informs us that, once convinced of his disgrace, Charles-Pierre circulated in Paris a "bloody satire" in which Marie was cruelly treated. Colardeau lived for several years up to his death—as did many penniless writers of his time—in the house of an aristocrat, the Marquise de Viéville, of whom the Mémoires ... say "she was a woman of wit and philosophy, adding that "the rumor was that she had married or would marry him (Colardeau)". It seems that the marquise fought hard to get her poet made a member of the Académie française but bear in mind that—again according to the authors of Mémoires ...—Colardeau had a reputation in the world of letters for writing very little but to be the best versifier in France. In January 1776, Colardeau succeeded Duc de Saint-Aignan in the Académie française. But he did not even have time to deliver his acceptance speech as he died April 7, 1776, aged only 43 years. Works Lettre d'Héloïse à Abailard, in imitation of Alexander Pope, (1756) ; Astarbé (1758), tragédie ; Armide à Renaud (1758) ; Caliste (1760), tragédie ; Le Patriotisme (1762) ; Epître à Minette (1762) ; Les Perfidies à la Mode (1766), comédie ; Les Nuits d'Young (1770) ; Le Temple de Gnide (1772) ; Epître à M. Duhamel de Denainvilliers (1774) ; Les Hommes de Prométhée (1774). His works form 2 volumes in-8, 1779. Notes and references Bibliography Renata Carocci, Les Héroïdes dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siecle, Fasano et Paris, Schena-Nizet, 1988 [Pierre Jabineau de la Voûte], « Vie de M. Colardeau », in : Œuvres de Colardeau, Paris, Billard et Le Jay, 1779, 2 vol. Jean-Noël Pascal, La belle Pénitente (La belle Pénitente de Mauprié, Caliste de Colardeau), Presses Universitaires de Perpignan, 2001 External links His plays and productions of them on CÉSAR 1732 births 1776 deaths People from Eure-et-Loir 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights Members of the Académie Française