Alexis Piron

Who was Alexis Piron?

Alexis Piron was a French epigrammatist and dramatist.

He was born at Dijon, where his father, Aimé Piron, was an apothecary. Piron senior wrote verse in the Burgundian language. Alexis began life as clerk and secretary to a banker, and then studied law. In 1719, when nearly thirty years old, he went to Paris, where an accident brought him money and notoriety. The jealousy of the regular actors produced an edict restricting the Théâtre de la Foire, or licensed booths at fair times, to a single character on the stage. None of the ordinary writers for this theatre would attempt a monologue-drama for the purpose, and Piron made a great success with a piece called Arlequin Deucalion, representing Deucalion immediately after the Deluge, amusing himself with recreating in succession the different types of man.

In 1728 he produced Les Fils ingrats at the Comédie-Française. He attempted tragedy in Callisthene, Gustave Vasa and Fernand Cortes, but none of these succeeded, and Piron returned to comedy with La Metromanie, in which the hero, Damis, suffers from the verse mania.