The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at St. Flour, in Auvergne, 1727. Died 1775. Aged 48.] A writer who acquired immense popularity in his own day, but whose death, it is said, was hastened by grief at the total failure of his last dramatic work. His best production is “The Siege of Calais,” which, as the third great success achieved by his pen, secured for him the gold medal accorded by the king to authors who should have been thrice successful on the stage. The style of Belloy is somewhat laboured and sententious, and he indulges largely in hyperbole; but he had a happy knowledge of stage effect. He possessed an astonishing memory; and was the first introducer of national subjects, for representation upon the French stage. At an early period of his life he had himself been an actor in Russia. [From the marble by Caffieri. On the pedestal of the bust is inscribed--“The work of his friend, Caffieri. 1771.”] [32] This biographical notice belongs properly to “French Poets and Dramatists,” and has been unavoidably misplaced.