Julien Auguste Pélage Brizeux was a French poet. He was said to belong to a family of Irish origin, long settled in Brittany. He was educated for the law, but in 1827 he produced at the Théâtre Français a one-act verse comedy, Racine, in collaboration with Philippe Busoni. His most important works are, first, Marie, then, Les Bretons. He also wrote in the Breton language, notably Telenn-Arvor and Furnez Breiz.
Life
Brizeux was born at Lorient resulted in 1841 in the publication of a complete French translation of Dante's Divine Comedy in terza rima. In his collection Primel el Nola he included poems written under Italian influence, entitled Les Ternaires, but in the rustic idyll of Marie he turned to Breton country life. In Les Bretons he found his inspiration in the folklore and legends of his native province. In La Chasse du Prince Arthur he created a narrative around the short life of Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, murdered by King John of England. His Histoires poétiques was crowned by membership in the French Academy. Following his death at Montpellier in 1858, his Œuvres complètes were edited with an assessment of the author by Saint-René Taillandier. Another edition appeared in 1880–1884. A long list of articles on his work may be consulted in an exhaustive monograph, Brizeux. Sa vie et ses œuvres, by the abbé C. Lecigne. Known as "le prince des bardes bretons", he was credited as the founder of modern Breton literature by later Breton Celticists. Théodore Botrel created a monument to him in Pont-Aven, which is ceremonially adorned each year at the Fête des Fleurs d’Ajonc. His works in Breton, Telenn Arvor, and his collection of proverbs, Furnez Breiz, were republished by Roparz Hemon in the Breton language literary magazineGwalarn in 1929.
Works
Racine, one-act comedy in verse, with Philippe Busoni, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 27 décembre 1827
La Divine Comédie de Dante Alighieri, traduction nouvelle par A. Brizeux,.avec une notice et des notes par le même, 1841
;Posthumous publications
Œuvres complètes, 2 vol., 1860
Œuvres, 1874
Œuvres, 4 vol., 1879-1884
Marie, poème. Primel et Nola, preface by Saint-René Taillandier, illustrations by Henri Pille, 1882
Œuvres choisies, 1910
Choix de poésies, 1932
Telenn arvor furnez Breiz peurreizet hag embannet gant Roparz Hemo, 1932
Un Poète romantique et ses amis : correspondance 1805-1858. Auguste Brizeux, letters, edited by Jean-Louis Debauve, Brest, Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique, 1989
