DUSSAULX, JEAN, a French writer, best known as the translator of Juvenal, was born at Chartres, Dec. 28, 1728. He studied first at La Flèche, and afterwards at Paris; and having obtained the situation of a commissary in the gendarmerie, he served under the Marshal de Richelieu, in Hanover, during the seven years' war. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted a member of the academy at Nancy; and in 1770 he published his translation of Juvenal. This work procured him admission into the Academy of Inscriptions; and he was also appointed ordinary secretary to the Duke of Orleans.
For some years he quietly prosecuted his literary occupations at Paris; but, upon the breaking out of the Revolution, his enthusiastic disposition led him to adopt its principles; and he took part in the debates of the legislative assembly. He spoke and voted, however, at all times for moderate measures; and, on several occasions, he was employed to calm the passions of the people during public tumults. At the memorable sitting of the convention 15th Jan. 1793, he voted that the king should be detained in custody during the war, and banished on the return of peace. It is rather remarkable, that when the committee of public safety wished to send him to the scaffold, his pardon was obtained by Marat, who represented him as an old dotard, incapable of becoming dangerous. He became president of the council of ancients in July 1796, but left it in 1798. At the sitting of 27th April, he took leave of the assembly in a speech which was ordered to be printed. He died March 16, 1799, after a long and painful illness.
Dussaulx was a man of considerable literary attainments, and amiable, upright, and disinterested in his conduct. His translation of Juvenal is esteemed the best version of that poet in the French language. His other works are, Mémoires sur les Satiriques Latins; Lettres et Réflexions sur la fureur du Jeu, sur lesquelles on a joint une autre Lettre Morale, Paris, 1775; Discours sur la Passion du Jeu dans les différents Siècles; De la Passion du Jeu, depuis les temps anciens jusqu'à nos jours, 1779, 8vo; Vie de l'Abbé Blanequet, prefixed to the Apologies and Tales of that author, Paris, 1784, 8vo; De l'Immersion Portugaise, et de la prise de la Bastille, Paris, 1790; Lettre au Citoyen Péron, 1796, 8vo; Voyage à Barrege, et dans les Hautes-Pyrénées, Paris, 1796, 2 vols. 8vo; De mes Rapports avec Jean-Jacques Rousseau, &c., Paris, 1798, 8vo, a curious work, which throws considerable light on the character of that celebrated man. Marie-Jeanne Lientau, the widow of Dussaulx, published memoirs of his life, which are exceedingly interesting. See also Palissot, Mémoires sur la Littérature; and Biographie Universelle.