Coppée, François

Related Category: French Literature: Biographies

(fräNswä´ kôpā´), 1842–1908, French poet and dramatist. He won fame with the one-act comedy Le Passant (1869, tr. 1881), in which Sarah Bernhardt made her first successful appearance. His early verse, as in Le Reliquaire (1866), linked him with the Parnassians; his later work, as in Les Humbles (1872), is sentimental and tells of the sorrows of the poor. La Bonne Souffrance (1898), a religious novel, was written after his return to Catholicism.