Joseph Mery, a French author, born at Les Aigalades, near Marseilles, Jan. 21, 1798, died in Paris, June 17, 1866. He was diMiiissed from a seminary for reading Voltaire, and from a law school on account of a duel. Subsequently he was wounded "in another duel in Paris, and went to Italy, whence he was soon driven by his dissipations. In 1821 he was arrested at Marseilles for writing against the abbe Elicagaray, and rearrested on account of another obnoxious publication. In 1822 he visited Constantinople, quarrelled with the French ambassador, and was obliged to leave. After editing a journal at Marseilles, he established himself in Paris in 1824, and became known in conjunction with Barthelemy, fsee Bartiielemy, Auguste Marseille) by effective satires in verse against various administrations and by his adulation of the Bonaparte family, Napoleon en Egypte (1828) being one of their finest lyrics. He acquired still more literary fame by entertaining and eccentric novels and books of travel. Among the best known are Nuits de Londres (republished as Nuits anglaiscs), I/eva, La Floride, La guerre du Nizam, Les confessions de Morion Delorme, Nuits italiennes, Nuits d'Orient, Nuits espa-gnolcs, Nvits parisiennes, and Un camatal de Paris. He wrote the libretto for Seminimis and other operas, but was less successful in plays, of which he published a collection entitled Theatre re de salon (1861). A new edition of his Poesies intimes appeared in 1864. Some of his novels have been translated into English.