Hoffmann, François Benoît

Hoffmann, François Benoît (11 July 1760, Nancy; 25 April 1828, Paris), librettist, finished his first studies in his native city and went to Strasbourg to pursue law, but a speech impediment obliged him to renounce a career at the bar, and he enlisted for duty in a regiment stationed in Corsica. His family had him returned to France, however, and he started to write poetry that attracted the attention of the marchioness de Boufflers and won him a prize posted by the Academy of Nancy…