A popular French playwright, born at Paris; gave up medicine for literature, and his first successes were "Monsieur Garat" and "Les Pres Saint-Gervais," both in 1800; from that date his popularity and wealth began to flow in upon him; his work has been taken up by Sarah Bernhardt, for whom he wrote "Fedora," "Theodora," and "La Tosca" (1887); a number of his plays have been translated into English, such as "A Scrap of Paper," "Diplomacy," etc.; was elected to the Academy in 1877; his plays are characterised by clever dialogue and stage effects, and an emotionalism rather French than English; born 1831.