Auguste Brizeux
Julien Pélage Auguste Brizeux was a French poet. He was said to belong to a family of Flight of [the Wild Geese|Irish origin], but long settled in Brittany. He was educated for the law, but in 1827 he produced at the Théâtre Français a one-act verse comedy, Racine, in collaboration with.
His most important works are, first, Marie, then, Les Bretons. He also wrote in his native Cornouaille dialect of the Breton language, most notably Telenn-Arvor and Furnez Breiz.
Life
Brizeux was born at Lorient, Morbihan. Though he was brought up with the Cornouaille dialect of Breton, in his Breton language verse he used the standardised Breton orthography codified by Jean-François Le Gonidec. He became an ardent student of the philology and archaeology of Brittany, and had collected materials for a dictionary of Breton place-names.A journey to Italy in company with Auguste Barbier made a great impression on him, and a second visit resulted in 1841 in the publication of a complete French translation of Dante's Divine Comedy in terza rima. In his collection Primel el Nola he included poems written under Italian influence, entitled Les Ternaires, but in the rustic idyll of Marie he turned to Breton country life. In Les Bretons he found his inspiration in the folklore and legends of his native province. In La Chasse du Prince Arthur he created a narrative around the short life of Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, murdered by King John of England. His Histoires poétiques was crowned by membership in the French Academy.
Following his death at Montpellier in 1858, his Œuvres complètes were edited with an assessment of the author by Saint-René Taillandier. Another edition appeared in 1880–1884. A long list of articles on his work may be consulted in an exhaustive monograph, Brizeux. Sa vie et ses œuvres, by the abbé Constantin Lecigne.
Known as "le prince des bardes bretons", he was credited as the founder of modern Breton literature by later Breton Celticists. Théodore Botrel created a monument to him in Pont-Aven, which is ceremonially adorned each year at the Fête des Fleurs d’Ajonc. His works in Breton, Telenn Arvor, and his collection of proverbs, Furnez Breiz, were republished by Roparz Hemon in the Breton language literary magazine Gwalarn in 1929.
Works
Racine, one-act comedy in verse, with Philippe Busoni, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 27 décembre 1827Marie, verse novel, 1832 Les Ternaires, book of lyrics, 1841Les Bretons, narrative poem, 1845Furnez Breiz, 1845 Histoires poétiques, suivies d'un Essai sur l'art, ou Poétique nouvelle, 1855 Primel et Nola, 1852;Editions and translationsMémoires de Madame de La Vallière, 2 vol., 1829 La Divine Comédie de Dante Alighieri, traduction nouvelle par A. Brizeux,.avec une notice et des notes par le même, 1841
;Posthumous publicationsŒuvres complètes, 2 vol., 1860 Œuvres, 1874 Œuvres, 4 vol., 1879-1884 Marie, poème. Primel et Nola, preface by Saint-René Taillandier, illustrations by Henri Pille, 1882Œuvres choisies, 1910Choix de poésies, 1932Telenn arvor furnez Breiz peurreizet hag embannet gant Roparz Hemo, 1932Un Poète romantique et ses amis : correspondance 1805-1858. Auguste Brizeux, letters, edited by Jean-Louis Debauve, Brest, Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique, 1989
Legacy
In 1888, a monument was created in the town of Lorient in tribute to Brizeux.In Brittany, 1 elementary school, 2 middle schools, and 1 high school were named after him, as well as 19 streets in various towns of France.