Béranger, Pierre Jean de

views updated

Pierre Jean de Béranger (pyĕr zhäN də bāräNzhā´), 1780–1857, French lyric poet. He was a protégé of Lucien Bonaparte and a friend of some of the most eminent men of his day. His first collection of songs, published in 1815, was immediately popular. He fitted his verse to popular melodies, and he used his poems largely to express republican and Bonapartist ideas, for which he was twice imprisoned.