After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war and won public favour as a poet of the Parnassian school.

In the same year, Coppée's first play, Le Passant, starring Sarah Bernhardt and Madame Agar,[1] was received with approval at the Odéon theatre, and later Fais ce que dois (1871) and Les Bijoux de la délivrance (1872),[2] short poetic dramas inspired by the Franco-Prussian War, were applauded.

After holding a post in the library of the senate, Coppée was chosen in 1878 as archivist of the Comédie Française, an office he held till 1884.

His verse and prose focus on plain expressions of emotion, patriotism, the joy of young love, and the pitifulness of the poor.

[4] He was one of the founders of the Ligue de la patrie française,[3] which originated in 1898 with three young academics, Louis Dausset, Gabriel Syveton and Henri Vaugeois, who wanted to show that Dreyfusism was not accepted by all at the University.