DESCHAMPS (DE SAINT-AMAND), MILE

born Feb. 20, 1791, Bourges, Fr. died April 23, 1871, Versailles poet prominent in the development of Romanticism. Deschamps's literary debut came in 1818, when, with Henri de Latouche, he produced two plays. Five years later, with Victor Hugo, he founded La Muse franaise, the journal of the Romantic, and the preface to his tudes franaises et trangres (1828) formed a manifesto of the movement. His translations of Romeo and Juliet (1839) and Macbeth (1844), though never performed, were also important. He wrote several libretti, notably that for Berlioz' Romo et Juliette, and his prose works include Contes physiologiques (1854) and Ralits fantastiques (1854).