[Born at St. Flour, in Auvergne, 1727. Died 1775. Aged 48.]
A writer who acquired immense popularity in his own day, but whose
death, it is said, was hastened by grief at the total failure of his
last dramatic work. His best production is “The Siege of Calais,” which,
as the third great success achieved by his pen, secured for him the gold
medal accorded by the king to authors who should have been thrice
successful on the stage. The style of Belloy is somewhat laboured and
sententious, and he indulges largely in hyperbole; but he had a happy
knowledge of stage effect. He possessed an astonishing memory; and was
the first introducer of national subjects, for representation upon the
French stage. At an early period of his life he had himself been an
actor in Russia.
[From the marble by Caffieri. On the pedestal of the bust is
inscribed--“The work of his friend, Caffieri. 1771.”]
[32] This biographical notice belongs properly to “French Poets and
Dramatists,” and has been unavoidably misplaced.