A Brief Alexis Piron Bio

Piron (Alexis), French comic poet, b. Dijon, 9 July, 1689. His pieces were full of wit and gaiety, and many anecdotes are told of his profanity. Among his sallies was his reply to a reproof for being drunk on Good Friday, that failing must be excused on a day when even deity succumbed. Being blind in his old age he affected piety. Worried by his confessor about a Bible in the margin of which he had written parodies and epigrams as the best commentary, he threw the whole book in the fire. Asked on his death-bed if he believed in God he answered “Parbleu, I believe even in the Virgin.” Died at Paris, 21 Jan. 1773.