COPPÉE, FRANÇOIS ÉDOUARD JOACHIM (1842-1908), French poet and novelist, was born in Paris on the 12th of January 1842. His father held a small post in the civil service, and he owed much to the care of an admirable mother. After passing through the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and soon sprang into public favour as a poet of the young "Parnassian" school. His first printed verses date from 1864. They were republished with others in 1866 in a collected form (_Le Reliquaire_), followed (1867) by _Les Intimités_ and _Poèmes modernes_ (1867-1869). In 1869 his first play, _Le Passant_, was received with marked approval at the Odéon theatre, and later _Fais ce que dois_ (1871) and _Les Bijoux de la délivrance_ (1872), short metrical dramas inspired by the war, were warmly applauded.
After filling a post in the library of the senate, Coppée was chosen in 1878 as archivist of the Comédie-Française, an office which he held till 1884. In that year his election to the Academy caused him to retire altogether from his public appointments. He continued to publish volumes of poetry at frequent intervals, including _Les Humbles_ (1872), _Le Cahier rouge_ (1874), _Olivier_ (1875), _L'Exilée_ (1876), _Contes en vers_, &c. (1881), _Poèmes et récits_ (1886), _Arrière-saison_ (1887), _Paroles sincères_ (1890). In his later years his output of verse declined, but he published two more volumes, _Dans la prière et la lutte_ and _Vers français_. He had established his fame as "le poète des humbles." Besides the plays mentioned above, two others written in collaboration with Armand d'Artois, and some light pieces of little importance, Coppée produced _Madame de Maintenon_ (1881), _Severo Torelli_ (1883), _Les Jacobites_ (1885), and other serious dramas in verse, including _Pour la couronne_ (1895), which was translated into English (_For the Crown_) by John Davidson, and produced at the Lyceum Theatre in 1896. The performance of a short episode of the Commune, _Le Pater_, was prohibited by the government (1889). Coppée's first story in prose, _Une Idylle pendant le siège_, appeared in 1875. It was followed by various volumes of short tales, by _Toute une jeunesse_ (1890)--an attempt to reproduce the feelings, if not the actual wants, of the writer's youth,--_Les Vrais Riches_ (1892), _Le Coupable_ (1896), &c. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1888. A series of reprinted short articles on miscellaneous subjects, styled _Mon Franc Parler_, appeared from 1893 to 1896; and in 1898 was published _La Bonne Souffrance_, the outcome of Coppée's reconversion to the Roman Catholic Church, which gained very wide popularity. The immediate cause of his return to the faith was a severe illness which twice brought him to the verge of the grave. Hitherto he had taken little open interest in public affairs, but he now joined the most violent section of Nationalist politicians, while retaining contempt for the whole apparatus of democracy. He took a leading part against the prisoner in the Dreyfus case, and was one of the originators of the notorious Ligue de la Patrie Française. He died on the 23rd of May 1908.