Moreau, Hégésippe, 1810-1838

Hégésippe Moreau (born Pierre-Jacques Roulliot; April 8, 1810 – December 20, 1838) was a French lyric poet. From birth, he was called by the last name of his biological father (Moreau) and took on the pseudonym Hégésippe when he first began publishing poetry in 1829. In the imagination of the French romantics and the 19th century public, the difficulties of Hégésippe Moreau's life and his untimely death made him a romantic equivalent of the earlier poets Thomas Chatterton, Nicolas Joseph Laurent Gilbert and Jacques Clinchamps de Malfilâtre. This romantic myth was solidified by the publication of his complete works, together with the works of Gilbert and a list of poets who died of hunger, in 1856; the 1860 edition of his works included an important biographical preface by Sainte-Beuve.