NIVELLE de la Chaussée (Peter Claude), a comic poet, born in Paris; acquired great reputation by inventing a new kind of entertainment, which was called the Weeping Comedy. Instead of imitating Aristophanes, Terence, Moliere, and the other celebrated comic poets who had preceded him; and instead of exciting laughter by painting the different ridiculous characters, giving strokes of humour and absurdities in conduct; he applied himself to represent the weaknesses of the heart, and to touch and soften it. In this manner he wrote five comedies: 1. La fausse Antipathie. 2. Le Préjugé à la Mode; this piece met with great success. 3. Melanide. 4. Amour pour Amour; and, 5. L'École des Mères. He was received into the French academy in 1736; and died at Paris in 1754, at 63 years of age. He also wrote a tragedy, entitled, Maximianus; and an epistle to Clio, an ingenious didactic poem.