Sebastien-Roch Nicolas, known in his adult life as Nicolas Chamfort and as Sebastien Nicolas de Chamfort, was a French writer, best known for his epigrams and aphorisms.
14 Facts About Nicolas Chamfort
2.
Nicolas Chamfort was secretary to Louis XVI's sister, and of the Jacobin club.
3.
Local tradition said that he was the love child of an aristocratic woman, Jacqueline de Montrodeix, and of a clergyman named Pierre Nicolas Chamfort; and that he was then given for adoption to the grocer, who was a relative of the biological father.
4.
On his return to Paris, Nicolas Chamfort produced a successful comedy, The Young Indian Girl, following it with a series of epistles in verse, essays and odes.
5.
Nicolas Chamfort fell in love with and married a lady attached to the household of the duchesse du Maine; she was 48 years old, clever, amusing, and a woman of the world.
6.
Nicolas Chamfort was thus once more attached to the court, and made friends there despite his satirical attitude.
7.
Nicolas Chamfort quit the court for good after an unfortunate and mysterious love affair, and was taken into the house of M de Vaudreuil.
8.
Nicolas Chamfort threw himself into the republican movement, forgetting his old friends at court and devoting his small fortune to revolutionary propaganda.
9.
Nicolas Chamfort became a street orator and was among the first to enter the Bastille when it was stormed.
10.
Nicolas Chamfort worked for the Mercure de France, collaborated with Pierre-Louis Ginguene in the Feuille villageoise, and drew up for Talleyrand his Addresse au peuple francais.
11.
Nicolas Chamfort finally used the razor to stab himself in the chest and to cut his own hocks, aiming at the veins.
12.
Nicolas Chamfort dictated to those who came to arrest him the well-known declaration Moi, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort, declare avoir voulu mourir en homme libre plutot que d'etre reconduit en esclave dans une maison d'arret which he signed in a firm hand.
13.
Nicolas Chamfort's butler found him unconscious in a pool of blood.
14.
The writings of Nicolas Chamfort include comedies, political articles, literary criticisms, portraits, letters, and verses.