Chénier, Marie Joseph

Related Category: French Literature: Biographies

(märē´ zhôzĕf´ shānyā´), 1764–1811, French poet and dramatist, b. Constantinople; brother of André Chénier. A member of the Convention, the Council of Five Hundred, and the Tribunate during the French Revolution, he wrote a number of political and historical plays, notably Charles IX (1789). Besides the comprehensive Tableau historique de l'état et des progrès de la littérature française depuis 1789 (1816), he is famous for his songs of the Revolutionary period, particularly the Chant du départ.