Paul Louis Courier

Paul Louis Courier (Paul Louis Courier de Méré) , 1772-1825, French political writer and classical scholar. His translation (1810) of the Greek text of Daphnis and Chloë is considered excellent. After the Bourbon restoration, which he opposed, he devoted himself to writing trenchant political pamphlets, the best known of which are Simple Discours (1821), for which he was jailed, and Le Pamphlet des pamphlets (1824), remarkable for its stylistic brilliance. His memoirs and letters (1828) have the same original charm that make his literary works memorable. He was murdered, presumably by one of his servants.

Godard, Benjamin (Louis Paul) (b Paris, 1849; d Cannes, 1895). Fr. composer and violinist. Cond. Concerts Modernes, Paris 1885–6. Prof. of instr. ens., Paris Cons., from 1887. Wrote 2 vn. concs., pf. conc., syms., and 8 operas (from which only the Berceuse for ten. from Jocelyn (1888) seems to have survived). Some of the instr. works are still played.

Revere, Paul (1734–1818) Revolutionary leader, silversmith, and printer. The Boston-born Revere ran the family business, silversmithing, after his father died in 1754 and expanded into copperplate engraving. In the 1760s and 1770s he became increasingly politically active and joined the Sons of Liberty. His engraving of the Boston Massacre (1770), although replete with factual errors, was a powerful propaganda piece, arousing indignation against the British. Revere also played a key role in planning the Boston Tea Party (1773). He became a courier for the Massachusetts government, carrying messages to other colonies. His most famous ride, that of April 18, 1775, began when he was asked to ride to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were marching west from Boston. A second rider was dispatched by a different route. Revere did alert the two men, and then he and the second rider decided to continue on to Concord. En route, with a third rider, they were stopped by the British; the other two escaped, but Revere was detained briefly and then left without his horse. He returned to Lexington, where he witnessed the skirmish on Lexington Green. Revere's later service during the Revolution was unremarkable; he was charged with cowardice and insubordination and forced to resign after participating in a failed effort to oust a British force from a fort in Maine. (This decision was overturned in a later court-martial sought by Revere.) After the war, he resumed his smithing business in Boston and in 1797 opened an iron foundry, which became noted for its cast church bells. He also produced ordnance for the new U.S. government.