Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

His wife suffered much from his violent temper, and when in 1774 she brought an action against him to obtain a separation, she was supported by Lebrun's own mother and sister.

[1] Lebrun had been secrétaire des commandements to the prince de Conti, and on his patron's death he lost this position.

To this period belongs a long poem, the Veillées des Muses, which remained unfinished, and his ode to Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, which ranks among his best works.

He praised Calonne, comparing him with the great Sully, and likened Louis XVI to Henry IV of France, but he ended up as the Reign of Terror's official poet.

"[1] La Harpe has said that the poet, called by his friends, perhaps with a spice of irony, Lebrun-Pindare, had written many fine strophes but not one good ode.