Prosper Jolyot de, a French writer of tragedy, usually ranked after Corneille and Racine, was born at Dijon, Feb. 15, 1674. He was originally destined for the profession of the law, and went to Paris with that view; but the impetuosity of his passions rendering him unfit for business, he was urged by some friends, who discovered his natural turn, to attempt dramatic composition. It was not without some reluctance that he at length complied with their desire; and after a time he produced a tragedy, which met with great success. He continued to advance in the career he had commenced till his marriage, which provoked his father to disinherit him. Although re-established in his rights before his father's death, the poet had already squandered his patrimony by anticipation; and still continued in poverty. His miseries were increased by the death of his wife in 1711; but having soon after obtained the somewhat uncongenial employment of censor of the police, he continued in prosperous circumstances till his death in 1762. He was of an extremely robust temperament, ate prodigiously, and slept little; and was always surrounded with about thirty dogs and cats, and smoked large quantities of tobacco in order to neutralize the exhalations from these animals. When ill he made a jest of physic and physicians, and treated his case in whatever way his fancy suggested. The principal pieces of Crebillon are Ictoménée, Rodogune, Ariane, Electre, Rhadamiste, Sémiramis, Catalina, and Le Triumvirat. The Pélopides is considered as a failure. After the brilliant success of his Catalina, Louis XV. caused the Œuvres de Crébillon to be printed at the royal press of the Louvre, in 2 vols. 4to, 1750, the profits of which were given to the author.

His son Claude (1707–1777) obtained great popularity by the powerful delineations in his various very licentious novels. See Romance.