La Harpe, Jean-François de (1739-1803). French poet, playwright, and critic. As a young man he associated with the philosophes and modelled himself on Voltaire. Fame came with the tragedy Le Comte de Warwick (performed 1763), set in medieval England. His plays, poems, and discourses were successful in their day—in particular his controversial drame, Mélanie (published 1770, performed 1791)—but he is now remembered for his influential Le Lycée ou Cours de littérature (1799-1805). Based on lectures given at the Lycée, this aimed to be first complete literary history of Europe. Ignoring the Middle Ages, misrepresenting the Greeks, and giving pride of place to French classical tragedy, it offers a strongly traditionalist, not to say reactionary, view of the subject. La Harpe, having welcomed the Revolution, turned virulently against it when he was imprisoned, and published a striking diatribe, Du fanatisme dans la langue révolutionnaire (1797). The Lycée contains vitriolic attacks on Diderot, Rousseau, and the philosophic spirit in general.
[Peter France]
