Pierre Jean de Béranger

Pierre Jean de Béranger (1780-1857), French poet and writer of political songs, born in Paris. In 1804 one of his revolutionary songs brought him to the notice of Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and a strong Republican sympathizer. Bonaparte supported the poet for several years until Béranger obtained a clerkship. With the publication of the first collection of his songs in 1815, he was recognized as the poet of the Republican faction in France. The chanson, in which the 18th-century writers praised love and wine, became in his hands a powerful political weapon. He was imprisoned for his sentiments.