An author, lecturer, journalist, and member of the French Academy, Louis-Jean-Népomucène Lemercier is barely remembered today, yet in his own time Lemercier's works were widely discussed and often sparked considerable controversy. Some of the ups and downs of the poet-playwright's career seem inseparable from early-nineteenth-century political and aesthetic upheavals and can best be understood in the context of that transitional period in French history and letters. Other impediments to his success appear to stem from Lemercier's misuse of his own talents.

A staunch defender of political liberties, Lemercier often found himself at odds with the Napoleonic and Bourbon regimes. He so strongly opposed the establishment of the empire, for example, that he returned his Legion of Honor medal on the eve of Napoleon I's coronation in 1804. Expressions of the dramatist's republican beliefs were not limited to such noteworthy acts, however. Denunciations of tyranny, political...