French poet, greatest in the 18th century, born at Constantinople; author of odes, idylls, and elegies, which place him high among French poets; took part in the Revolution as a lover of order as well as of liberty; offended Robespierre, and was guillotined two days before the fall of Robespierre; as a poet he was distinguished for the purity of his style and his originality (1762-1794).