François Joseph Lagrange-Chancel

Who was François Joseph Lagrange-Chancel?

François Joseph Lagrange-Chancel, born at Périgueux, was a French dramatist and satirist.

He was an extremely precocious boy, and at Bordeaux, where he was educated, he produced a play when he was nine years old. Five years later his mother took him to Paris, where he found a patron. in the princesse de Conti, to whom he dedicated his tragedy of Jugurtha or, as it was called later, Adherbal. Racine had given him advice and was present at the first performance, although he had long lived in complete retirement. Other plays followed: Oreste et Pylade, Méleagre, Amasis, and Ino et Mélicerte.

Lagrange hardly realized the high hopes raised by his precocity, although his only serious rival on the tragic stage was Campistron, but he obtained high favour at court, becoming maître d'hôtel to the duchess of Orléans.