Life

Bouilly was born near Tours, and was briefly a lawyer for the parlement of Paris. At the outbreak of the Revolution he held office under the new government and was head of the military commission in Tours during the Reign of Terror.

In 1795, he served as a member of the Committee of Public Instruction having a considerable share in the organization of primary education, but retired from public life four years later in order to devote himself to literature. Bouilly died in Paris.

Works

His numerous works include the musical comedy, Pierre le Grand (1790), for André Ernest Modeste Grétry's music, and the opera, Les deux journées (1800), music by Cherubini; also L'Abbé de l'épée (1800), and some other plays; and Causeries d'un veillard (1807), Contes à ma fille (1809), and Les Adieux du vieux conteur (1835). His Leonore (1798) formed the basis of the libretto of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio. In 1836, he published his memoirs, Mes récapitulations.

Quote

• "Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others."

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.