SEDAINE, Michel Jean (1719-1797), dramatist, was born at Paris on 4th July 1719. Few men of letters have risen from a lower station. Although his father was an architect, he died when Sedaine was quite young, leaving no fortune, and the boy began life as a mason’s labourer. He worked himself up in his trade and was at last taken as pupil and partner by the builder who employed him. Meanwhile he had done his best to repair his deficiencies of education, and in 1753 he published a volume of poems of some merit. He then took to the theatre and after composing various vaudevilles and operettas attracted the attention of Diderot, and had two remarkable plays accepted and performed at the Théâtre Français. The first and longest, the Philosophe sans le Savoir, was acted in 1765; the second, a lively one-act piece, La Gageure Imprévue, in 1768. These two at once took their place as stock pieces and are still ranked among the best French plays, each of its class. Sedaine inclined somewhat to the school of drame or tragédie bourgeoise, but he was free from the excessive sentimentality which in the hands of Diderot and others marred the style, and he had a vein of singularly natural and original comedy. Indeed his originality is one of his chief points, though except the two pieces mentioned little or nothing of his has kept the stage or the shelves. Sedaine, who became a member of the Academy, secretary for architecture of the fine arts division, and a prosperous man generally, was personally both popular and respected. He lived to a considerable age, dying at Paris on 17th May 1797.