Casimir Delavigne

When, on 20 March 1811 the empress Marie Louise gave birth to a son, named in his cradle as king of Rome, the event was celebrated by Delavigne in a Dithyrambe sur la naissance du roi de Rome, which obtained him a sinecure in the revenue office.

In 1819 his play Les Vêpres Siciliennes was performed at the Odéon, then just rebuilt; it had previously been refused for the Théâtre Français.

But Louis-Philippe of France, willing to gain the people's good wishes by complimenting their favourite, wrote to him as follows: "The thunder has descended on your house; I offer you an apartment in mine."

To this period also belong La Princesse Aurilie (1828), and Marino Faliero (1829), a drama in the romantic style.

Another crisis in his life and in the history of his country, the revolution of 1830, stimulated him to the production of a second masterpiece, La Parisienne.

Other works of Delavigne followed each other in rapid succession: In 1843 he left Paris to seek in Italy the health his labors had cost him.

His Œuvres completes (new edition, 1855) contains a biographical notice by his brother, Germain Delavigne, who is best known as a librettist in opera.