¹ This article is the preliminary step of a more complete and detailed study of men's literary circles in Paris from 1610 to 1715. It does not include mixed groups like those of Mlle de Gournay, Mme des Loges, la vicomtesse d'Auchy, and Scarron although, in character and purpose, they are closer to the men's clubs than to the salons. The bureaux d'adresses, which originated in 1631, are also excluded since they represent a movement very similar to the present scheme of adult education.

² Which contains an interesting discussion of the vital need of such groups, that was brought to my attention by H. H. Shapiro of The Johns Hopkins University.

³ Men's literary groups of the sixteenth century are included in Clark Keating's Studies in the Literary Salon in France in the Sixteenth Century, an unpublished Harvard dissertation of 1934.

⁴ The only studies made on this group are: Claude Nicaise, Traité des Sirènes (Paris: 1691), Isaac Uri, Un Cercle Savant au XVIIe Siècle (1575–1655), (Paris: Hachette, 1886), and Harcourt Brown, Scientific Societies in Seventeenth Century France (1620–1680), (Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Co., 1934), pp. 1–16. Brown reports that René Pintaud, professor in the Lycée de Sens, has examined the Fonds Du Puy of the Bibliothèque Nationale in preparation of an elaborate study of erudite society in France during this period.

⁵ Perroniana et Thuana (A Cologne chez***, m.dc.xciv), Thuana, pp. 425–426.

⁶ Although the meetings continued till the end of the century under the direction of Salmon, Villehaut and Huet, they had changed so much in tone that the cabinet may be said to have closed in 1661.

⁷ Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres de Peiresc aux frères Du Puy (Paris; Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–90), i, 881, Lettre de J. Du Puy, Oct. 19, 1627.

⁸ Bignon and Bigot had important academies of their own.

⁹ Œuvres de Jean-François Sarasin (Paris; Champion, 1926), ii, 216.

¹⁰ To these may be added the less important members: La Riviére, Sarrau, Bouchard, de Sève, Tronchet-Marigny, Abbé de Colombier, Genou, Board, and Auger de Mauléon, seigneur de Granier, collector and publisher of memoirs. My sources were: the Peiresc correspondence, the Chapelain, Balzac and Patin letters referred to later, and the Mémoires de Michel de Marolles (Amsterdam: m.dcc.lv). For Campanella, cf., also his Lettere, Scrittori d'Italia (Ban: Laterza & Figli, 1927), pp. 261, 299 and 322. This Calabrian philosopher was a constant visitor to the Du Puys' from his arrival in Paris on Dec. 1, 1634 until his death May 3, 1635.

¹¹ President Jacques-Auguste de Thou had devoted forty years to the collection of his library, which consisted of more than one thousand rare manuscripts and eight thousand books.

¹² The library of the Du Puy brothers, later bequeathed to the Bibliothèque du Roi, contained ten thousand books and three hundred manuscripts. Among these were a sixth-century Latin and Greek copy of the Epistles of St. Paul and a precious papyrus fragment of the Homélies de Saint-Avil, both of which were much prized by Peiresc, who urged the Du Puys to show the papyrus to Aleandro as soon as he arrived in Paris. Cf. Lettres aux Du Puy, i, 62, letter dated Apr. 28, 1625. Whenever a new book of interest appeared either at home or abroad, the Du Puys would order two or three copies especially made for them on their own paper, or else select the finest pages of several books to make as perfect a copy as possible. Cf. Peiresc, Lettres, i, 270, June 5, 1627, and iii, 132, June 20, 1634. Their own bible heptaglotte was a typographical masterpiece printed in 1645. From 1650 to 1652, Balzac sent to them and to Conrart a special paper made in the mills of his district in Angoumois. Cf. Lettres Familières de Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (Amsterdam, Elzeviers, cioiocixi), ii, 55, 87, 123, 128, 130, and 241, and La Fizelière, Rymaille des plus belles' bibliothières en 1649 (Paris: Aubry, 1868), pp. 23–25 and 74. The value of these books is shown by Luillier's concern over lending Balzac a rare copy of Victorius in 1638 and his subsequent relief at its safe return. In recommending care of the book, Chapelain says to Balzac: “Le volume, la reliure et les armes de la maison de Thou vous en prient assés tous seuls.” Cf. Lettres de Chapelain, ed. Tamizey de Larroque (Paris: Imp. Nat., 1880–83), i, 338, letter of Dec. 19, 1638, and that of Feb. 6, 1639, i, 382.

¹³ He must have joined the cabinet soon afterwards since he received, as a member, the Latin verses composed on the death of Pierre Du Puy in 1651 and his presence there before 1653 is attested by his description of its personnel, which also mentions the gift of some of their works made him by Jacques and Pierre Du Puy. Cf. Mém. de Marolles, ii, 220, iii, 343–344 and 371.

¹⁴ Ibid., i, 323.

¹⁵ Such references appear in all the letters and memoirs of the time, as for example—Peiresc, Lettres aux Du Puy, ii, 240, 533, 553–554, etc.

¹⁶ Their literary and political conversations are described in the Lettre de Rolandus Paludanus aux frères Du Puy quoted by Uri, op. cit., pp. 13–15, as follows: “On y tient les conversations extrêmement agréables sur les lettres et sur tout ce qui touche aux lettres; on y juge avec le plus grand soin les livres anciens et surtout les œuvres modernes; on y parle de ce qui s'imprime de nouveau; on y discute les opinions des érudits … et sur toutes ces questions on émet des avis si sincères et si sages qu'on a raison d'apprécier cette assemblée qui vous instruit plus que les lectures continuelles; car … les esprits des hommes se polissent dans les réunions et y recueillent une certaine expérience.”

¹⁷ For his life and works cf. Uri op. cit. Guyet's books, acquired by Ménage after his death in 1655, continued to be greatly sought by editors of the classics such as Boecler, Graevius, Marolles, Schrevelius and Gronovius. So prevalent was this practice that Chapelain was often embarrassed, after his quarrel with Ménage in 1659, by their requests for notes from these books which formed the most important part of Ménage's library. Cf. A. Fabre, Les Ennemis de Chapelain (Paris: Thorin, 1897), i, 44; ii, 133–134, 138, 140–141, 145, 147–148, 150, and 317.

¹⁸ For Méziriac cf. Lettres de Peiresc aux Du Puy, i, 229, 268; ii, 395, dated May 16 and June 5, 1627 and Dec. 18, 1632. For Silhon ibid., i, 495; ii, 292, dated Jan. 15, 1628 and Dec. 26, 1631. For d'Ablancourt cf. Lettres de Chapelain, i, 414, Apr. 17, 1639.

¹⁹ Cf. references to the reading of the Balzac works below.

²⁰ Such as those of Nicolas Bourbon in Lettres de Peiresc, II, 684–685.

²¹ Ibid., i, 574, letter dated Mar. 24, 1628.

²² Id., ii, 684–685.

²³ Id., ii, 564, July 17, 1633.

²⁴ For this and Le Parnasse Royal, cf. Id., iii, 35, Letter of Feb. 13, 1634.

²⁵ Id., iii, 107, May 23, 1634.

²⁶ Chapelain's Lettres, i, 443–444. It was read twice in the salon de Rambouillet i.e. July 3 and 14, 1639 (Cf. i, 448 and 452) and given to d'Ablancourt to be read with the Discours de la Conversation des Romains at the Du Puys.' It seems that the latter Discoars was never printed, for in Les Œuvres dv Sievr de Balzac (A Paris: chez Estienne Mavcroy, 1664), pp. 1–18, Le Romain, Discours Premier, is followed by Svite d'vn Entretien de Vive Voix, ou de la Conversation des Romains, Discours Deuxième, pp. 19–52, both of which are dedicated to Mme de Rambouillet.

²⁷ Ibid., i, 414. It was heard at the Du Puys' on Apr. 16, 1639, “avec un plaisir extrême” despite its length and “ensuitte on avoit fait une grande confalutation sur vostre mérite et sur vostre vertu,” writes Chapelain to Balzac. The same work was read at the salon de Rambouillet on March 30 and at Conrart's on April 17, 1639 (Cf. i, 411).

²⁸ For the dispute between Chapelain and Voiture begun in the salon de Rambouillet, and the circumstances of the composition of this Discours, cf. Collas, Jean Chapelain (Paris: Perrin et Cie, 1911), pp. 162–165. It was read by Luillier at the Du Puys' between April 16 and 23, 1639, “et admiré par toute la troupe.” Cf. Lettres de Chapelain, i, 416, Apr. 23, 1639.

²⁹ Ibid., i, 338 and 611, dated Dec. 19, 1638 and Apr. 29, 1640.

³⁰ According to Gui Patin's letter to Spon of Sept. 3, 1649 and his Lettres du temps de la Fronde (Paris: Editions Bossard, 1921), pp. 142–143.

³¹ There are interesting glimpses of Guyet, the critic, in the Lettres de Chapelain, I, 146, Apr. 23, 1639; i, 420, May 7, 1639; i, 708–709, Oct. 20, 1640; i, 717–718, Nov. 11, 1640, etc.

³² Ibid., i, 738, Dec. 30, 1640.

³³ The Thuana, of course, belonged to the family. The Perroniana had been collected by Christophle Du Puy, brother of Pierre and Jacques while the Scaligerana manuscript had been given to the Du Puys by Jean and Nicolas de Vassau, nephews of Pierre and François Pithou. The cabinet lent both these manuscripts to Claude Sarrau, whose copy of them was later given by his son, Isaac Sarrau, to Daillé's son. The latter arranged the items alphabetically in a transcription published by Isaac Vossius at The Hague in 1666. (According to Tamizey de Larroque's correction of the Lettres de Chapelain, ii, 720, n. 8, where on Feb. 18, 1671, Chapelain writes to Ottavio Ferrari that Wicquefort had copied the Scaligerana and Perroniana in the cabinet and, after leaving France, had sold them to Dutch publishers who made a fortune on them.)

³⁴ For he had already retired to the Oratoire in 1620 according to Triaire in his edition of the Lettres de Gui Patin (Paris: Champion, 1907), i, 103, and was there in 1623, when he contributed a poem to De Bérulle's Grandeurs de Jésus, according to Pellisson, Hist, de l'Acad.fr., i, 184–189. That his académie was well under way by 1628 seems apparent from the collections of Bourbon's poems and letters grouped around the dates 1628, 1630–31, 1633–34 and 1637 in Poematia Exposita (Parisiis: R. Sara, 1633) and Opera Omnia, (Parisiis: sumptibus Simeonis Piget, m.dc.liv).

³⁵ Before his appointment as Professor of Greek at the Collège Royal in 1611, Bourbon had many of the later writers in his classes at the Collèges de Calvi, des Grassins and d'Harcourt.

³⁶ Avocat au présidial de Chartres, bailli vicomte de Chateauneuf, friend of Bourbon, Rotrou, Colletet and protégé of Molé, de Mesmes, Bassompierre and Charles de Gonzagues. Cf. Fleuret et Perceau, Les Satires Francaises du XVIIe Siècle (Paris: Garnier Frères), i, 275.

³⁷ Also a great friend of Bourbon. Both the father and son of the same name were Latin poets, the son being aumônier du roi et chanoine de l'église de Paris.

³⁸ Of Bordeaux to whom Bourbon dedicated his Poematia Exposita.

³⁹ Such as Alexandre Le Grand, who won the prix du Palinod de Rouen in 1613, Jacques Le Grand, sieur de Briocourt, avocat du roi au présidial de Chaumont en Bassigny. Cf. Lachèvre, Bibliographie de Recs. Coll. de poésies publiées de 1597 à 1700 (Paris: H. Leclerc, 1901–05), iv, 143, and i, 219. Others of the group were François du Monstier, professor of eloquence in the Collège Royal and the Carthusian Latin poet, Le Brun.

⁴⁰ Unless otherwise mentioned these names were taken from the poems and letters of Bourbon's Poematia Exposita, Opera Omnia, and Carolii Ogerii Ephemerides, etc, (Lutetiae Parisiorvm; apvd Petrvm Le Petit, 1656). For Bourbon's relations with Balzac, his pupil in Latin and Greek, their quarrel in 1628 and later reconciliation cf., Les Premières Lettres de Balzac, ii, 106 and 139.

⁴¹ According to François Ogier's sonnet in Nicolai Borbonii Tumulus (Parisiis: apvd R. Sara, 1649), p. 62, which gives an interesting impression of the académie, Bourbon himself “étoit fort civil, grand approbateur des ouvrages d'autrui en leur présence, mais quelquefois un peu chagrin et un peu trop sensible aux injures qu'il s'imaginoit avoir reçues.” (Pellisson, Eist, de l'Acad.fr., i, 187.) Grand-nephew and namesake of the great Hellenist of the Renaissance, in the beginning of the century he had been the protégé of Du Perron, the friend of Régnier and a member of the de Thou acadêmie. All of which gave him an interesting perspective of contemporary literature much appreciated by the younger men of his own acadêmie, where Patin confesses to have acquired “quantité de particularités historiques.” Cf. Vuilhorgne, Gui Patin (Beauvais: Imp. duMoniteur de l'Oise, 1898), p. 68.

⁴² In the MS Borboniana ou singularitez remarquables prises des conversations de Messieurs Nicolas Bourbon et Gui Patin, which he left with the injunction: “Mon fils, je parle à vous, comme si c'estoit icy mon testament. Tous ces cahiers que vous voyez icy font un farrago, un pot-pourri d'un ramas sans aucun ordre, de quantité de choses fort différentes, etc. Il y a quelques points bien libres et bien délicats, tant du fait de la Religion que du gouvernement des Princes. Tout ce que j'y ai dit des Jésuites, croyez-le comme très vrai, mais ne la dites jamais que très à propos … Je vous le répète et vous recommande encore un coup, lisez et les brûlez plus tôt que de les preter jamais à personne.” Cf. Triaire ed., of the Lettres de Gui Patin, i, 103–104. This probably resulted from the fact that Charles Patin was then living in Padua, exiled for having received from Holland copies of a book banned in France (Vuilhorgne, op. cit., p. 55). The twenty-four cahiers of this manuscript, now in the Library of Wiesbaden, have been described as follows in Die Handschriften der Koeniglichen Landesbibliotek … verszeischelt von Dr. Q. V. D. Linde, Bibliothekar, from which the above passage was taken,—pp. 1–4: Praefatio adversariis Patini praefixa, pp. 5–725,—Finis Miscellariorum (sic) ex adversariis Guidonis Patini ex scriptorum Parisiis sub initium anno 1664,—Index Titulorum in Miscellaneis Guidonis Patini Medici Parisiensis obviorum, 1706. Joly made some notes from this manuscript, which he found in the hands of a Dijon lawyer named de Chevannes. To these he added items that took place after the close of the Borboniana in 1638. Joly's copy was published in 1751 under the title of Borboniana, ou Fragments de littérature et d'histoire de Nicolas Bourbon at the end of Bruys' Mémoires historiques, critiques et littêraires (Paris: J.-T. Hérissant, 1751).

⁴³ From 1622 to 1623, Tilenus shared with his friend Grotius the house of which the latter was so proud opposite the Hotel de Condé in the street of the same name. Cf. W. S. M. Knight, The Life and Works of Hugo Grotius (London: Sweet and Maxwell, Ltd., 1925), p. 182.

⁴⁴ Cf. his Satires Inédites publiées par E. de Beaurepaire (Rouen: Imp. de E. Cagniard, 1888). This young fellow-student of Brébeuf in the classes of Bourbon's friend, Antonie Halley of Caen, first came in contact with the group in the late 1630's and plays an important part in the Tumulus, pp. 14–19 and 51–52.

⁴⁵ Lettres de G. Patin, ed. Triaire, i, 366.,

⁴⁶ In attempting to explain a passage of the Epistles of Saint Paul, Montmaur invoked the authority of Heschius, Manilius, and Strabon. On looking up the passages cited, Bourbon saw that he “s'était moqué de la docte assemblée” and confronted him with the proofs of his guilt.

⁴⁷ In trying to establish his own reputation as a scholar, Montmaur had been accustomed to scorn the works of other learned men of this and similar académies. His victims finally joined in a concerted attack against him. This was opened by Ménage's Vita Gargilii Mamurrae, written in 1636 but not published until 1643. It ended in the above-mentioned appeal to his friends and was followed by his own rhymed satire entitled,—Gargili Macronis Parasito-Sophistae Metamorphosis, dedicated to Balzac (Paris: 1643); Feramus' Macrini Parasito-Grammatici …; Adrien de Valois' ironically critical edition of Montmaur's two printed works under the title P. Montmauri. . . Opera, in duos tomos divisa, iter edita et notis nunc primum illustrata a Quinto Januario Frontone (Paris: 1643), Balzac's Le Barbon; Sarasin's Bellum parasiticum; besides numerous epigrams scattered through the recueils, as Colletet's poem addressed to Ménage (Epigrammes du Sieur Colletet Paris: Chamhoudry and Loyson, 1653, p. 170). Dalibray, Abbé de La Mothe le Vayer, Sirmond and many others joined in the fray. A collection of these satires appeared under the title of Epulum parasiticum (1665), and finally, a large number of them were published by Sallengre in his Histoire de Pierre Montmaur (La Haye: 1715). Cf. Fabre, Les Ennemis de Chapelain, i, 256–262.

⁴⁸ According to Racan's Mémoires pour la Vie de M. de Malherbe, who adds that if any one knocked after all the chairs were taken, Malherbe would shout through the door: “Attendez, il n'y a plus de chaires”! Cf. Œuvres de Malherbe, Grands Ecrivains ed. (Paris: Hachette, 1862), i, lxxviii.

⁴⁹ Ibid. It is possible that the musician, Boesset, who set to music the works of so many of these poets, was himself a regular attendant of these meetings.

⁵⁰ Cf. Ferdinand Brunot, La Doctrine de Malherbe (Paris: G. Masson, 1891), pp. 580–582, for the sources of these statements about the membership of this group. For Balzac's relations with Malherbe during his sojourns in Paris in 1615–17, 1624–25 and 1626–27, cf. Les Premières Lettres de Guez de Balzac 1618–1627. Ed. Crit. par H. Bibas et K.-T. Butler (Paris: Droz, 1933–34), ii, 159–160 and 171.

⁵¹ He had been a famous teacher of philosophy in the Collège des Jacobins and prédicateur ordinaire de Henri IV, his sermons being much admired by court and town.

⁵² In the Institution du Chrétien with Du Vair, Du Perron, and Bérulle, Coëffeteau is compared to the four elements that compose the universe. The Du Puys lent him their rare books and manuscripts. Gui Patin classes him with Séguier, Saumaise, and Nicolas Bourbon among those men whose conversation had afforded him the greatest intellectual pleasure. Cf. Lettres (La Haye, 1716), ii, 177.

⁵³ Mémoires, i, 103–105. For Coëffeteau's relations with Balzac who later turned against him, cf. Les Premières Lettres de Balzac, i, 53, 127, 141–143; ii, x and 244.

⁵⁴ This friendship was invoked by Théophile in his defence against Garasse. Cf. The-ophilus in Carcere (1624), p. 16, where he asks: “Quoi! auriez-vous fait un crime à Coëffe-teau, I‘évêque de Marseille de l'amitié qu'une mutuelle Sympathie et le gout de lettres avaient fait naître entre nous? Peu de temps avant sa mort, ce pieux prélat m'avait fait venir dans son voisinage afin d'avoir sous la main un ami dévoué, dont le commerce fut pour son esprit une agréable diversion aux ennuis de l‘étude et de la maladie.”

⁵⁵ Pro sacra monarchia ecclesia catholicae apostolicae et romanae ad versus Republican Marci Antonii de Dominis … (Lutetiae Parisiorum: sumptibus Sebastiani Cramoisy, 1623).

⁵⁶ Histoire de Poliarque et Argénis published posthumously by his friend Peiresc (Paris: S. Thiboust and J. Villery, 1624).

⁵⁷ Cf. Durand-Lapie, Saint-Amant, Son Temps, Sa Vie, Ses Poésies (1594–1661) (Paris: Ch. Delagrave, 1898), p. 48. For Coëffeteau and his connections, cf. Ch. Urbain, Nicolas Coöffeteau (1574–1623) (Paris: Thorin, 1893).

⁵⁸ For the académie, cf. Marolles' Mémoires, i, 78.

⁵⁹ Cf. E. Roy, La Vie et les Œuvres de Charles Sorel (Paris: Hachette, 1891), p. 178.

⁶⁰ This list was made largely from the Œuvres Complètes de Théophile de Viau, ed. Alléaume (Paris: P. Jannet, 1856), supplemented by statements made in Durand-Lapie's Saint-Amant, and in Lachèvre's numerous references to the group in such works as Le Procès du Poète Théophile de Viau (Paris: Champion, 1909), Les Œuvres Libertines de Claude Le Petit (Paris, 1918); Bibliographie des Rec. Coll., etc. It was carefully checked like all the membership lists of this article with reference to their actual presence in Paris and their associations at that time.

⁶¹ To be found in the works of all the poets of this period, even Voiture and Conrart having made their contribution to this genre.

⁶² Paris: Ant. de Sommaville, 1622. With the Quintessence Satyrique of the same year and Les Délices Satyriques (1620) (all three of them produced by this group and issued by the same publisher), this recueil achieved great notority in Théophile's trial (1723).

⁶³ Composed by Boisrobert, Théophile, Saint-Amant, Bordier, Du Vivier, Sorel and Malleville, perhaps. It was danced at the Louvre on Feb. 26, 1623. For its publication, cf. Lachèvre, Le Procès, i, 108.

⁶⁴ Under the title of Satyre Troisième.

⁶⁵ Which is the twelfth satire of his Exercices de ce temps (A Rouen: chez Guillaume de la Haye, 1617). Cf. Lachèvre's edition of Les Œuvres Satyriques d'Angot de l'Eperonnière (Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1929), pp. 146–159.

⁶⁶ A Quelques Siens Amis Courlisans, Touchant La Vie Du Poète Farouche De Ce Temps, Qui Méprise Ronsard et La Vertu. It was also known as Ls Satyrique Français and appears in Fleuret et Perceau's Les Satires Françaises, i, 168–173. The personal quarrel between Théophile and Claude Garnier, court poet and for many years leader of the ronsardistes, began with the publication of Théophile's Elégie à une Dame, seconded by Besançon's Satyre du Temps, first issued in Cl. d'Esternod's L'Espadron Satyrique (Lyon, 1622). It was reproduced in the Satyre Ménippée of Courval de Sonnet (1623) and in 1923 by Fleuret et Perceau, i, 116–122. Fear and resentment at being replaced by Théophile in the esteem of his noble patrons embitters Garnier's response, which opens with his Remonstrance à Philotée accompanied by a coarse quatrain (1623–25). During Théophile's trial and imprisonment, these were followed by Le Te Deum contre les Athéistes Libertins (1623), an Ode pindarique contre les médisans de Ronsard, serving as epilogue to Garnier's edition of Ronsard in 1623; and an anonymous pamphlet entitled L'Atteinte contre les Impertinences de Théophile ennemi des bons esprits (1624) and reproduced in Lachèvre's Le Procès, ii, 139–145. His next poems are directed against all who represent the new viewpoint. They are Le Frélon du Temps attacking the writers, who criticized his poem on the marriage of Henriette-Marie, and La Muse Infortunée contre les froids amis du temps, both published in 1624. This battle of satires is described at length in Le Procès, ii, 135–169.

⁶⁷ First published anonymously in 1622 and reproduced in E. Fournier's Variétés historiques et littéraires (Paris: P. Jannet, 1885), iii, 27–66. The purpose of this poem is to demonstrate the superiority of the present over the past in every walk of life.

⁶⁸ The “satyre sans vénin” which was written in 1622 or 1623, was included in the Nouv. Rec. des pl. belles poèmes (Paris: Loyson, 1654) and reproduced by Ed. Tricotel in his Variétés Bibliographiques (Paris: Gay, 1868), pp. 279–285. It reviews the sad fate of all worthy poets—Malherbe, Gombaud, Racan, Porchères, Maynard, Saint-Amant, Faret, de Croisilles, L'Estoille, waiting in want “à la porte des intendants.”

⁶⁹ H. C. Lancaster, A History of French Dramatic Literature in the Seventeenth Century (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Part i, 1929), i, 281.

⁷⁰ Cf. Ogier's preface of the 1628 edition of this play published in the Anc. Th. Fr. (Paris: P. Jannet, 1856), viii, 9–23, and the account of Colletet's influence given in J. Haraszti's edition of the 1608 version of Tyr et Sidon (Paris: E. Cornély et Cie., 1908), pp. xvii-xix. Though making certain concessions to the taste of the time. Schélandre retained his independance to the end, thus indicating the strong diversity of opinion that prevailed in these meetings.

⁷¹ Frequently mentioned in all books of poetry of the decade as Dél. de la poésie fr. (1620), p. 499; Molière d'Essertines' Regrets de Cloris sur le Changement de Thyrsis, ibid., 478; Pierre Hodey's Stances; Colletet's Désespoirs Amoureux (1622); La Charnays' La Muse Champestre (1623) and Œuvres Poétiques (1626); Hélie Poirier's Amours de Mélisse (1625); Frénicle's Premières Œuvres Poétiques (1625); Au Petit More à S. Cloud and A Morel au Héaume of Le Parnasse des Poètes Satyriqaes (1626); Faret's Recueil de Lettres Nouvelles (1627), containing numerous references to these writers, and Maynard's Horatian ode to Racan in the Rec. des pl. bx. vers (1627).

⁷² Entretiens des Illustres Bergers (1632). Similar passages also occur in Frénicle's Eclogues v, vi, ix, xi (1629), and Palémon (1632), as well as in Mauduit's Amours and Colletet's Divertissemens, both of 1631.

⁷³ Cf. Boisrobert's Description de Ruel, à M. Deslandes in the Rec. de pl. bx. vers (1627). It was here that Saint-Amant composed La Pluie in 1624. Cf. Durand-Lapie, p. 75. Ruel is also mentioned in Poirier's Les Soupirs Salutaires (1646).

⁷⁴ Cf. Urbain, Nicolas Coeffeteau, p. 247 and Les Premieres Lettres de Balzac, ii, 126 and 155.

⁷⁵ For Liancourt and Vauquelin des Yveteaux, cf. Durand-Lapie, pp. 121–125 and 276; Lachèvre, Disciples et Successeurs de Théophile de Viau, (Paris: Champion, 1911). p. 199; G. Mongrédien, Etude sur la Vie et l'Œuvre de Nicolas Vauquelin, seigneur des Yveteaux (Paris: Picard, 1921), pp. 122–126 and 135–136.

⁷⁶ Petitot, Collection des Mémoires Relatifs a l'Histoire de France, xxxi, Mémoires de Gaston d'Orléans (Paris: Foucault, 1824), p. 63.

⁷⁷ Pellisson, Hist, de l'Acad.fr., i, 230. D'Hozier, Sanguin, Patris and Habert were also of the household. Cf. E. Griselle, Maisons de la Grande Mademoiselle et de Gaston d'Orléans, son père (Paris: P. Catin, 1912), i, 112, 120, 154 and 196.

⁷⁸ N.-M. Bernardin, Un Précurseur de Racine, Tristan L'Hermite (Paris: Picard, 1895), p. 123. It is probable that these meetings ceased in 1641, since they only functioned during the intervals between military expeditions. The comte de Modène was much involved in campaigns of 1641, where he distinguished himself at Sedan and for some time afterwards, while the comte de Nançay joined the German army at the time of his disgrace in 1643 and died in 1645.

⁷⁹ Ibid., pp. 186–188. These are the only académies of this sort to be found between 1610 and 1634. They are closer to the discussion groups of the next period than to the writers' circles or even the mixed groups of the 1620's, although their members frequented one of the latter, the salon of Mme des Loges.

⁸⁰ Cf. Pellisson, Hist, de l'Acad. fr., ii, 413–114. In Le Procès de Théophile, ii, 136, n. 1, Lachèvre has evidently confused Mauléon with the playwright, Monléon, so-called by all writers on the theater. Cf. Lancaster, i, 1, 352, and ii, 1, 156–157; Hermann Lust, Monleon in seinem Thyeste als Nachahmar Senecas (Schweinfurt: F. J. Reichardt, 1887), etc. For there is no mention of Monléon's Amphytrite (1630) in the letters quoted in this article, and when Thyeste was published in 1638, Auger de Mauléon had already been in prison for two years.

⁸¹ Lettres de Peiresc aux Du Puy, ii, 126, July 7, 1629. For Granier's further relations with this group, cf. i, 355, 417; ii, 137, 150, 196, 255 and 693, letters of Sept. 18 and Nov. 11, 1627; July 21 and 27, Aug. 11 and Nov. 7, 1629 and June 30, 1630. On Nov. 7, 1629, Peiresc thanks him for Malherbe's Epistres de Sénèque just off the press and on May 18 of the same year, Granier again appears in Pierre Du Puy's letter to Peiresc. Chapelain also speaks of him in a letter to Balzac in November, 1632. Cf. Lettres de Chapelain, i, 9–10.

⁸² Cf. Lettres de Peiresc, iii, 558 and 572. These letters of Sept. 2 and 23, 1636 show pity for Granier but recognize the justice of his punishment. Chapelain mentions his imprisonment on Aug 7, 1639. Cf. Lettres, i, 475.

⁸³ Cologne: 1632.—Cf. Lettres de Chapelain, i, 13–17, letter of Dec. 10, 1632. The Cardinal evidently wished to discourage the free expression of writers' opinions on current political events.

⁸⁴ According to the portait engraved by Edelinck and reproduced in Jeanne Duportal's Etude sur les Livres â Figures Edités en France de 1601–60 (Paris: Champion, 1914), p. 148.

⁸⁵ Although a second-rate etcher and engraver and much too prolific a worker.

⁸⁶ Paris: de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1670.

⁸⁷ Sorel, Le Brun, Marolles, and the Latin poet, Santeuil, served as godfathers for his children.

⁸⁸ Jean-Michel Papillon, Mémoire sur la Vie de François Chauveau, Peintre et Graveur (Paris, 1854), is the principal source on Chauveau, who produced about three thousand plates, half of which are by his own hand, and who was the only important engraver of the time to belong to the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture. He is praised in Perrault's Hommes Illustres (Paris: Dezallier, 1696), ii, 99–100; Marolles' Livre des Peintres et Graveurs (Paris: Paul Deffis, 1872), and Mémoires, i, 325, and iii, 258.

⁸⁹ In his Replique au Discours de Reception de Boileau-Despreaux 1685, La Chambre gives the following impression of these meetings: “Dans cette école d'honneur, de politesse et de sçavoir, l'on ne s'en faisoit point accroire, l'on ne s'entestoit point de son propre mérite, l'on n'y opinoit point tumultuairement et en désordre. Personne n'y disputoit avec altercation et avec aigreur; les défauts estoient repris avec douceur et modestie, les avis receus avec docilité et soumission; bien loin d'avoir de la jalousie les uns des autres, l'on se faisoit un honneur et un mérite de celuy de ses confrères dont on se glorifioit plus que du sien propre … Là, chacun s'efforçait de devenir de jour en jour plus sçavant et plus vertueux; l'on aspiroit sans cesse au sommet de la perfection et de la sagesse, sans s'imaginer faussement que l'on y estoit desjà parvenu, sans se flatter d'une douce et agréable resverie causée par les illusions de l'amour-propre qu'on laissoit les autres bien derrière, hors d'estat d'y pouvoir jamais atteindre.”

⁹⁰ Reproduced by Ch. Arnaud, Les Théories Dramatiques au XVIIe siècle (Paris: Picard, 1888), pp. 336–347, from a manuscript in the Bibl. Nat. For the discussion of Chapelain's part in the introduction of the unities, cf. ibid., pp. 138–147 and Collas' Chapelain, pp. 92–108.

⁹¹ While the question is not definitely settled, Conrart's is one of the few probable places suggested, and we know that Chapelain was in the habit of bringing to this group everything in which he was interested at the time. Cf. Lancaster, op. cit., ii, 625–627.—The oftrepeated story of Conrart's circle is given by Pellisson, Hist, de l'Acad. fr., i, 8–16. Cf. also A. Bourgoin, Un Bourgeois de Paris Lettré au XVIIe Siècle, V alentin Conrart (Paris: Hachette, 1883), pp. 29–41, and R. Kerviler et E. Barthelemy, V alentin Conrart, sa vie et sa correspondance (Paris: Didier et Cie., 1881), pp. 20–37. Both these works reproduce the passage of the above-mentioned Réplique de La Chambre taken from the Recueil de Harangues de l'Académie Française, ii, 22.

⁹² For the life and works of Le Blanc, disciple of Régnier and associate of d'Estrenod and de la Croix, Cf. Fleuret et Perceau, op. cit., i, 42–43. Colletet's house was situated on the west side of the present rue Rollin. A passage connected its garden with that of Baïf on the next street facing the city walls. Within these walls midway between the two houses stood the Collège de Boncourt, whose principal was Ronsard's friend, Jean Galland. Dorat's home was also in the immediate neighborhood and the original Pomme de Pin was about a block away in what is now the Place de la Contrescarpe.

⁹³ Poésies Diverses de Monsieur Colletet (Paris: Chamhoudry, 1656), p. 405.

⁹⁴ Epigrammes du Sieur Collelet, p. 472, Svr la Maison de l'Avtevr.

⁹⁵ Cf. Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux, le 10 mai 1865, where A. Berty cites the Archives de l'Empire, reg. s. 1635, f° 106, 2°, in his article, La Maison de Ronsard à Paris, p. 276.

⁹⁶ Paris: Sebastien Cramoisy.

⁹⁷ Cf. Ch.-L. Livet, Précieux et Precieuses, 3° ed. (Paris: H. Welter, 1895), pp. 393–434.

⁹⁸ Hortus Epitaphiorum selectorum, ou Jardin d'Epitaphes (Paris, 1648), arranged for publication by Pierre de Saint-Romuald and dedicated to Gabriel Naudé. Cf. Lachèvre, Bibliog. des Rec. Coll., ii, 25–29.

⁹⁹ “Nous luy en donnasmes toutes les rimes encore les plus difficiles, & les plus hétéroclites dont nous pumes nous adviser,” says Colletet, “ce qu'il éxécuta tousiours si heureusement, & si bien, qu'il fit depuis naistre l'envie à plusieurs excellens Hommes de marcher sur ses pas.” Cf. L'Art Poétique du Sieur Colletet (Paris: Ant. de Sommaville et L. Chamhoudry, 1658), Discours du Sonnet, p. 114.

¹⁰⁰ Par G. Colletet, La Charnais, etc. (Paris: A. Courbé). Cf. Lachèvre, cit., ii, ix. For the Rec. de div, rondeaux, cf. ibid., II, 5–7.

¹⁰¹ Also published by Courbé. It contains forty-eight anonymous poems and eight by this group. Cf. Lachèvre, ii, 10–12.

¹⁰² Cf. Colletet's Discours contre la Traduction in L'Art Poétique and other references throughout his critical works and those of the others of the group such as Baudoin and Du Ryer, who did so much translating.

¹⁰³ Which they forwarded to Habert de Montmor and others, who could bring them to the attention of Richelieu or Séguier.

¹⁰⁴ Cf. Drouhet, Table Chronologique des Lettres du Poète François Mainard, (Paris, Champion, 1909), lxxv, cxxvii, cxxx, cxlv, CLVII, clk, clxiv, clxvii, clxxv, ccxxvii, ccxxix, cclv, cclvii, cclx, cclxv, cclxvii, cclxx, cclxxi, cclxxiv, cclxxvii, etc.

¹⁰⁵ Colletet's own Discours de l‘éloquence et de l'imitation des anciens, delivered in the Academy on Jan. 7, 1636, grew out of a discussion with a friend on the superiority of the ancients. Besides his collaboration as one of the “cinq auteurs” in the composition of La Comédie des Tuileries and L'Aveugle de Smyrne, which were performed Mar. 4, 1635 and Feb. 22, 1637 respectively. Colletet put into verse d'Aubignac's Cyminde, presented at the Palais Cardinal on Jan. 14, 1641. Unfortunately, the production of this group in drama, translation, and the more ambitious poetic genres failed to keep pace with the promise of its literary theories.

¹⁰⁶ Sémonce Bachique, à l'honneur du Grand Cardinal, published in the Rec. de div. rondeaux, p. 162.

¹⁰⁷ This study served as preface to Le Grand Ballet des effects de la nature (Paris: Jean Martin, 1632), which was again published in Paul Lacroix's Ballets et mascarades de cour (Genève, Turin: J. Gay et Fils, 1868–70), iv, 191. The first volume of his Art Poétique (1658) contains separate treatises on the epigram, sonnet, bucolic poetry, moral and sententious verse, followed by the two discours mentioned here. In a second volume, he had planned to treat with the same historical approach the drama, epic, and other genres.

¹⁰⁸ Consequently, besides writing a life of Duns Scot, Colletet published the biography of Jean du Housset, a hermit of Mont-Valérien at Suresnes, and of Ramon Lull in 1647; that of Giovanni della Casa in 1648, and of the historian Nicolas Vignier in 1650.

¹⁰⁹ All this information is taken from Colletet's poems, the published and manuscript Vies des poètes, and L'Art Poétique.

¹¹⁰ A vocal, conseiller du Roi et du Duc de Mantoue, maître des requêtes ordinaire de la Reine; a satirist, whom Colletet compares to Régnier and Tricotel considers superior to Angot, Desternod and Courval du Sonnet. His works have gone through three modern editions—1868, 1869, and 1881. This poem, which appeared only in Le Nouv. Rec. des pl. belles poésies (1654), was reproduced by Tricotel, Var. Bibliog., 290–295.

¹¹¹ Cf. R. Kerviler, Le Chancelier Pierre Séguier, 2e éd. (Paris: Didier et Cie., 1875), pp.166–175 and 441–688.

¹¹² Les Elémens de la Cognoissance de Dieu et de Soy-mesme, (Paris: Camusat).

¹¹³ Philippe Habert died in 1636. Esprit joined the group that year and was a regular attendant at its meetings until 1644, while De Chaumont did not enter the circle until 1645. Kerviler throws light on their reaction to several current issues such as, for instance, their opposition to Jansenism voiced by De Priézac who, at the command of Richelieu, made his own fortune and attained a great reputation by refuting in Vindicae gallicae adversus Alexandrum Patricium Armacanum theologum (1637), Jansenius' Mars gallicus, that had created a sensation upon its appearance in 1635 and had just been translated into French by Charles Hersent of Metz.

¹¹⁴ Cf. Joseph Michon, Etude sur Retz (Paris, 1863), p. 17 In order to rehabilitate himself at this moment (1638) in the public eye, Gondi had settled down to an exemplary life of study and of association with learned and pious men, while seriously devoting himself to his ecclesiastic career. Cf. Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz. Nouvelle Edition par Alphonse Feillet (Paris: Hachette, 1870), i, 331–346.

¹¹⁵ Œuvres de Sarasin, i, 31–33.

¹¹⁶ Mém. de Marolles, i, 367.

¹¹⁷ Cf. especially those composed by Ménage, Sarasin, Saint-Amant, and Voiture during this period.

¹¹⁸ Among these, Sarasin's favorite was Muy rebuelto anda Jaën. Cf. Œuvres de Sarasin, II, 226.

¹¹⁹ Chapelain worked on La Pucelle, in the prose version from 1625, in verse from 1630 to Dec. 15, 1655. Cf. Collas, Chapelain. pp. 205–292. Saint-Amant was engaged on Moyse, Idylle Sacré, from 1636 to 1653 according to Durand-Lapie, Saint-Amant, pp. 309, 343, 354, 402, 441, etc.

¹²⁰ Cf. Œuvres de Sarasin, i, 461–482.

¹²¹ Ibid., ii, 146–232. Here the examples for the affirmative were drawn from such widespread sources as the classics, the medieval Perceforest, and subsequent Italian and Spanish works, while Ménage sustained the negative at great length entirely from classical sources. This work was not printed till 1649.

¹²² The first of these debates, S'Il Faut qu'un Jeune Homme …, took place at Du Pille's house in Paris, where Sarasin had taken refuge during his temporary disfavor at court. The second just missed being given at the Retz circle, for which it was transcribed by Chapelain under the title, De la Lecture des Vieux Romans (Paris: Auguste Aubry, 1870). So although not actually given there, they may be considered characteristic of the discussions of this group. Both seem to have been favorite subjects of the académie de Retz, for in the first of these debates (p. 160), Ménage speaks of having had a similar conversation on love with Tallemant des Réaux, Perrot d'Ablancourt, and Conrart, and after leaving Du Pille's house in the course of this debate, the conversation was continued by Chapelain and Ménage during their afternoon drive in the Jardin de Renard. This was apparently a common practice of the time. In Marmet's Enlretiens da Cours, five members of different académies discuss on their drive such matters as the purpose of académies, l‘Eloquence de Balzac, and Desfontaines’ Sémiramis, just given at the Hôtel de Bourgogne.

¹²³ Which is also his defence for the use of Christian mythology instead of magic in La Pucelle. Cf. De la Lecture des Vieux Romans, p. 10.

¹²⁴ And this despite the vagueness of their chronology for they seem to have had no idea of the approximate date of Lancelot, although Chapelain says he knows of nothing older unless it be perhaps Joinville or Villehardouin. Ibid., p. 7.

¹²⁶ Aegidii Menagii Poemata. Octava Editio (Amstelaedami: Apud Henr. Wetstenium, 1687), bound with Poésies Françoises de Monsieur Ménage, which contains the Epistre en vieux tangage à Anne de Kercy, s'amie, and Autre Epistre en vieux langage à la mesme, pp. 275–279.

¹²⁵ Ibid., i, 237–245.

¹²⁷ Œuvres de Sarasin, i, 286–290. This was part of the Montmaur attack already mentioned.

¹²⁸ Aegidii Menagii Miscellanea (Parisiis: apud A. Courbé, 1652), Liber Adoptivus, p. 115, Eclogue. P. Mambrun.

¹²⁹ Aegidii Menagii Poemata, Poésies Françoises, Eclogues et Idylles, Livre i, pp. 193–198, Ecologue. Menalque. Lycidas. Damon.

¹³⁰ Ibid., pp. 95–96, Ad Janum Capelanum de Johanne Paulo Gondio Epigrammatum Liber V (1645), and Œuvres de Sarasin, i, 224–227, and 408–423.

¹³¹ Noted in the letters and poems of Colletet and his friends as, for instance, in Autres Poésies de M. Colletet (Paris: A. Courbé, 1644), Epigrammes, and Diverses Poésies, cit.

¹³² On Aug. 27, 1648. Cf. Lettres de Gui Patin, ed. Triaire, i, 616–617.

¹³³ This propensity of the bibliophile's had already become a byword several years earlier when Naudé, on a visit to Colletet at Rungis, was twitted by Nicolas Bourbon. Cf. Fr. Colletet, Abrégé des Annales de la Ville de Paris (1664), p. 392.

¹³⁴ Cf. Colletet's Epigrammes, p. 25, Aux Doctes Amis, MM Gassendi, de la Mothe le Vayer, Deodati, & Naudé, estant au Village d'Arcueil.

¹³⁵ Cf. Lettres de Peiresc aux Du Puy, i, 158, 171, 183, 198, 221, 319, 328, 331, 342, letters dated Mar. 5, 21, 31; Apr. 8; May 16; Aug. 10, 11, 13, 22, 1627: ii, various references for 1629, etc.

¹³⁶ Colletet, Poésies Diverses, Sonnet à Monsieur Heinsius sur la Maison de Monsieur Naudé à Gentilly.

¹³⁷ Claudian (Leyden, 1650), and P. Ovidii editio nova (Amsterdam: Elzeviers, 1661), dedicated to Jacques-Auguste de Thou. Cf. Fabre, Les Ennemis de Chapelain, ii, 204.

¹³⁸ Naudaeana et Patiniana (Paris: F. and P. Delaulne, 1701), Patiniana, p. 24.

¹³⁹ La Promenade is found in Œuvres de François de la Mothe le Vayer. Nouvelle edition revue et augmentée (Dresde: Michel Groell, 1758), iv, 88–100. Le Banquet Sceptique is the second of Les Dialogues d'Oratius Tubero, the first of his works published by La Mothe le Vayer between 1630 and 1633 (Francfort: J. Sarius, 1604, evidently a spurious date). Cf. Florence L. Wickelgren, La Mothe le Vayer, sa Vie et son Œuvre (Paris: E. Droz, 1934), p. 85.

¹⁴⁰ Sainte-Beuve, Lundis. 3e ed. (Paris, Gamier, 1857–72), viii, 120.

¹⁴¹ As he is generally called in Balzac's letters of the 1640's.

¹⁴² This was on the east side of the street midway between the present junction of the Boulevard Saint-Michel and the rue du Val-de-Grace. Cf. Chapelain's Lettres, i, 331, 344 and 365, Dec. 5 and 24, 1638 and Jan. 15, 1639.

¹⁴³ Ou les Six Journées passées à la campagne entre les personnes studieuses par la Mothe le Vayer, whose privilège is dated Mar. 9, 1651. The book was put on the Index and not published until 1670 (Paris: Thomas Jolly).

¹⁴⁴ De l'intercession de quelques saints particuliers, pp. 120–132.

¹⁴⁵ Ibid., pp. 97–115. After discreetly disclaiming animosity towards Balzac, Ménage keenly analyzes that writer's irritation against anyone, who refused him the superiority he claimed in all things, and his propensity to suppress any reputation greater than his own, adding that Balzac would have been more popular if he had not tried to force his success and if he had a more profound conception of things. His death, however, having removed all envy and resentment, a truer appreciation of his work should now be possible. Hence this discussion.

¹⁴⁶ Que les meilleurs écrivains sont sujets à se mesprendre, pp. 15–29.

¹⁴⁷ Que les plus grands auteurs ont besoin d'estre interpretez favorablement, pp. 32–53.

¹⁴⁸ Pp. 76–92.

¹⁴⁹ These constitute the first three dialogues of La Promenade already cited. Cf. Œuvres de La Mothe le Vayer, iv, 21–109.

¹⁵⁰ A topic chosen because of La Mothe le Vayer's delight in the numerous Relations sur le Nouveau Monde, on which he was quite an authority.

¹⁵¹ Probably Annales Hollandiae Zelandiaeque (Amsterdam, 1645–46), Matthieu, the son of Gerard-Jean Vossius.

¹⁵² Cf. Dialogues iv to ix of the above Promenade, pp. 110–195 and 199–272. His works contain much material that undoubtedly served as the subject of such conversations. Cf., for instance, Des Poètes, De la Poésie (vii, 190, 179); Des Livres (iii, 241); De la Censure des Livres (vii, 146); Des Auteurs (iii, 342); Des Hommes de Lettres (viii, 14; Contre les Plagiaires (iii, 359); Des Nouvelles Remarques sur la Langue Françoise (vi, 1); Considerations sur l'Eloquence Françoise de ce Temps (ii, 183); Doute Sceptique si l'Etude des Belles-Lettres est Préférable à Toute Autre Occupation (v, 345); Que les Doutes de la Philosophie Sceptique sont de Grand Usage dans les Sciences (v, 3); Observations Diverses sur la Composition et sur la Lecture des Livres (ii, 319); De la Conversation et de la Solitude (ii, 216); Des Contestations i.e., these discussions (vi, 268); Des Bonnes et des Mauvaises Compagnies (vi, 118), etc.

¹⁵³ Cf. Vuilhorgne, Gui Patin, p. 66; E. Roy, La Vie et les Œuvres de Charles Sorel, pp. 355–358; Lettres du temps de la Fronde, and Correspondance de Gui Patin éditée par Armand Brette (Paris: Colin, 1901).—While Patin attended the Montmor académie and was intimate with de Blancmesnil and Guillaume de Lamoignon, I have found no evidence of their visiting his home.

¹⁵⁴ In a letter to Falconnet on Apr. 21, 1651, published in the Correspondance, i, 112, Patin says: “Je puis vous assurer que mon étude est belle. J'ai fait mettre, sur le manteau de la cheminée, un beau tableau d'un crucifix, qu'un peintre que j'avais fait tailler me donna l'an 1627.” On each side of this hung the portraits of himself and his wife, and below them, those of his mother and father. On one side of the fireplace, was a large portrait of Erasmus and on the other, one of Joseph Scaliger while on either side of a beam that traversed the middle of the room were six of his favorite “hommes illustres” well lighted by the windows on both sides of the library. In addition to those enumerated above, he also had the portraits of his friends, Heinsius, Saumaise, and Naudé. Cf. Correspondance, pp. 101–102, letter to Falconnet, Dec. 2, 1650.

¹⁵⁵ Ibid., pp. 131–132, letter to Falconnet, Oct. 21, 1653.

¹⁵⁶ Id., pp. 162, 195–196 and 244–245.

¹⁵⁷ La Stimmimachie, ou le grand combat des médecins modernes touchant l'usage de l'antimoine, poème histori-comique, dédié à MM. les médecins de la Faculté de Paris par le sieur C.C. (Estienne Carneau, célestin) (Paris, Jean Paslé, 1656).

¹⁵⁸ In his Chemin de la Fortune (Paris, J.-B. Loyson, 1663), where he describes this group. This passage is repeated by Roy, p. 35.

¹⁵⁹ In a letter to Spon on Nov. 8, 1658 describing his conversations with Charpentier and Miron. Cf. Correspondance, p. 278.

¹⁶⁰ To Spon, May 3, 1650. Cf. Lettres du temps de la Fronde, p. 200.

¹⁶¹ He adds in another letter to Spon on May 24, 1650. Ibid., p. 213.

¹⁶² Vuilhorgne, p. 67.

¹⁶³ In speaking of the first three to Falconnet on Nov. 25, 1659, Correspondance, p. 299.

¹⁶⁴ Besides the scientific societies treated by Harcourt Brown, there were the historical meetings on Tuesdays at Chantereau-Lefèbvre's, the numismatic society of the Abbaye Saint-Victor, Le Pailleur's group of mathematicians on Saturdays, and many others. Cf. Mém. de Marolles, ii, 116.

¹⁶⁵ Sieur de Valcroissant in Entretiens du Cours, written after Balzac's death in 1654 and translated into English by Thomas Saintserf as Entertainments of the Cours: or Academical Conversations. Held upon the Cours at Paris, by a Cabal of the Principal Wits of that Court, pp. 138–149, Sect. 25. Of Academies and the differences thereof.

¹⁶⁶ When Marie de Gonzagues married and went to Poland without having made any provision for his career as he had expected. This house had belonged to the widow of two well-known courtiers. His tranquil, scholarly life there is described in his Mémoires, i, 322 and 377–379.

¹⁶⁷ Villeloin and Baugerais, which he had held since early youth.

¹⁶⁸ His father, Claude de Marolles, had been gouverneur du due de Retelois and he himself had been connected with that family since his school-days. In 1638, he was commissioned to make the Inventaire général de tous les titres de la Maison de Nevers. Cf. Mém., i, 219.

¹⁶⁹ In 1635, he began a collection of 200 genealogies of Touraine families. This filled five or six volumes of 200 pages each and brought him into contact with Hozier. His proposed history of Touraine won him the friendship of Abel and Louis de Sainte-Marthe and of André du Chesne, who was reading the manuscript of the above genealogies in his country home, when he died in 1640 (Mém., i, 193–197).

¹⁷⁰ Begun by the purchase of the collections of de Lorme and de Kervel, to which he added so wisely and zealously that, in 1653, it comprised 70,000 prints by 400 well-known painters and engravers and was sold to Colbert in 1666 for the royal library. Whereupon he immediately started a new collection, catalogued in 1672 at 237 folios. Cf. L. R. Metcalfe, A Prince of Print Collectors: Michel de Marolles, in Prints and their Makers (New York: The Century Co., 1912), pp. 33–51. Of Marolles' own proposed history of the arts and crafts, nothing remains but the puerile list of one thousand artists entitled: Le Livre des Peintres et des Graveurs (Paris: Elzevirienne, 1855).

¹⁷¹ For these translations, cf. Mém., i, 353, 355, 368, 371–374. In 1646, the Retz académie discouraged his translation of Vergil, which nevertheless appeared the following year. Cf. Mém., i, 323–325. In 1653, Patin wrote to Falconnet: “C'est un fort honneste homme, qui est mon ami depuis 1620. Ses traductions ne lui font pas honneur; ses meilleurs amis s'en plaignent aussi bien que moi. Je voudrais qu'il n'y eut jamais pensé, car c'est d'ailleurs un excellent homme.” Cf. Correspondance, p. 132.

¹⁷² Mém., i, 327; ii, 19, 86–91, 101, 338; iii, 365 and 370.

¹⁷³ As Marolles points out in mentioning each of them. Of Polier, for instance, he says: “il a si bien servi le roi dans les armées et si bien étudié en même temps, surtout la langue françoise, qu'il semble parisien, tant il a l'air françois et l'esprit de ceux de la cour.”

¹⁷⁴ Only three of which have come down to us, viz., Philotime (de Martel), Aléthophile (de Sorbière), and Ariste (probably Marolles). Cf., Mém., ii, 254, 255, and 416. Samuel de Sorbière, who became such a prominent member of the group, was introduced to Marolles by Abbé de Verdus on his arrival in Paris in 1654 after his conversion at Orange.

¹⁷⁵ Mém., ii, 380 and 392–393.

¹⁷⁶ This came up the week after the departure of Queen Christine for Compiègne. Cf. Mém., ii, 256–318, 338–382; iii, 194–224.

¹⁷⁷ Ibid., ii, 383–393 and iii, 1–20.

¹⁷⁸ Id., iii, 21–73.

¹⁷⁹ Among the subjects of general interest were: Each country has its own advantages and everyone naturally prefers his own land (ii, 319–337); Is Touraine superior to other French provinces? (ii, 79–87); Credulity as illustrated by miracles, witches, astrology (ii, 124–125). In religion they discussed the reasons for Balthasar becoming Protestant and de Sorbière Catholic, on Oct. 24, 1655 (ii, 123–124); the existence of the Pre-Adamites (ii, 63–71); the unity of churches (ii, 59–62); the kinship of Mary Magdalen and Lazarus (ii, 41–46); proof that Joachim and Anne were the parents of the Virgin Mary (ii, 46–58); etc.

¹⁸⁰ Ibid., ii, 109.

¹⁸¹ Id., ii, 126–135.

¹⁸² iii, 157–193.

¹⁸³ iii, 94–109.

¹⁸⁴ iii, 110–127.

¹⁸⁵ iii, 127–139.

¹⁸⁶ iii, 139–149.

¹⁸⁷ iii, 150–156.

¹⁸⁸ ii, 380. Letter of Samuel de Sorbière to de Martel on Sept. 28, 1656.

¹⁸⁹ Paris: J.-Th. Hérissant, 1757.—Cf. Sylvain van der Weyen, Choix d'Opuscules Philosophiques, Historiques, Politiques et Littéraires. 4e série (Londres: Trubner et Cie., 1876).

¹⁹⁰ Menagiana (A Paris: chez la Vve Delaulne, 1729), ii, 90.

¹⁹¹ After 1670, the meetings had thinned out so that they may be considered to have ended, although Ménage's friends occasionally came until his death in 1692. Cf. Elvire Samfiresco, Ménage, Polémiste, Philologue, Poète (Paris: L'Emancipatrice, 1902), p. 101.

¹⁹² Samfiresco, pp. 18–20, 52–55; Uri, Un Cercle Savant, p. 28, etc.

¹⁹³ Chapelain also belonged to the Accademia della Crusca.

¹⁹⁴ Samfiresco, p. 24.

¹⁹⁵ As at Mlle de Scudéry's in 1656, when Ménage palmed off a madrigal of his own as one of the Rime di Tasso to be found only in a rare copy belonging to de Thou. Ibid., p. 27.

¹⁹⁶ In which Ménage maintained that the play was regular although its action took more than twelve hours, while d'Aubignac insisted that it was completed in ten hours and set forth his arguments in Discours sur la troisième comédie de Térence intitulée “Heautontimorimenos,” contre ceux qui pensent qu'elle n'est pas dans les règles anciennes du poème dramatique, 1640. This was followed the same year by Ménage's Réponse au discours sur la comêdie de Térence intitulée “Heauiontimorimenos.” Both these documents were republished in Aegidii Menagii Miscellanea (1652), without any mention of d'Aubignac's authorship. Gravely offended, the latter replied in his Térence Justifié (1655), which Louis Nublé attempted to have toned down. This the author consented to do if Ménage would also remove from his Réponse (1640) the passages slandering his adversary. Chapelain tried to settle the matter, but Ménage refused to retract or even to read the Térence Justifié, which his friends thought filled with “choses injurieuses écrites contre lui.” The news of this dispute spread through the learned world and continued into the next decade. Cf. Samfiresco, pp. 103–123.

¹⁹⁷ This long-cherished project of Ménage was carried out despite the protests of Balzac, for he had always admired Malherbe because “la justesse de ses pensées, la noblesse de ses expressions, la variété de son style, le beau tour de ses vers, et surtout, ce je ne sçay quoi, qui se voit, qui se sent et qui ne se peut exprimer, lui donnent aussi sans doute le premier rang sur nostre Parnasse.” Immediately on the publication of this work, Chevreau accused Ménage, in private, of having used the manuscript of his own observations on Malherbe, which had been in La Mesnardière's possession for a time. Despite their circulation in literary circles, these accusations were not written till 1687 nor published until five years after the death of Ménage. Cf. Samfiresco, pp. 138–143.

¹⁹⁸ Christine, églogue (Paris, Vitré, 1656).

¹⁹⁹ Tallemant des Réaux, Historiettes, éd. Monmerqué et P. Paris (Paris: J. Techener, 1850–60), v, 235–236; Fabre, Les Ennemis de Chapelain, II, 86–105.

²⁰⁰ It was by the same strategy that Ménage, himself, had burst into prominence in Paris, almost twenty years before, for it is generally agreed that Retz was first attracted by his satire against Montmaur and asked Chapelain to bring him to his académic

²⁰¹ A la Haye: Imprimé par les Antiménagistes de la rue des Mauvais Garçons, à l'enseigne de la Corneille d'Esope, chez le Pédant démonté, à Cosmopolis, Dédié à Son Altesse Royale Mademoiselle.

²⁰² Published as Le Parnasse Alarmé (Paris, 1649).

²⁰³ For the Chapelain-Ménage quarrel, which lasted till Pellisson proposed that all three of them become reconciled after his own conversion to Catholicism in 1671, cf. Samfiresco, pp. 69–101; Collas, Chapelain, pp. 306–318; and Fabre, ii, 64–317.

²⁰⁴ To be found only in the long letter from de Sorbière to Hobbes on Feb. 1, 1658 included in Lettres et Discours de Monsieur de Sorbière sur diverses matières curieuses (Paris: 1660), p. 631, and reproduced in H. Brown's Scientific Societies, pp. 75–76. For a study of the scientific activities of this group, which was the direct precursor of the Academie des Sciences founded in 1664, cf. pp. 64–134.

²⁰⁵ Cf. Vissac, La Poésie Laline, p. 307. His De Rerum Natura is lost, but the witty Latin epigrams for which he was famed are scattered through the recueils of the time.

²⁰⁶ According to Chapelain's report to Colbert in 1662. Cf. Desmolet's Mémoires, ii, 32, and Segrais, Œuvres (Amsterdam: 1723), i, 434.

²⁰⁷ For the last two of these, cf. Monconys' Journal de Voyages (Paris: 1695), ii, 11, 323, and 328.

²⁰⁸ Mém. de Marolles, ii, 114.

²⁰⁹ Molière et la Médecine de son Temps (Lille: Imprimerie Danel, 1895).

²¹⁰ On examining some of de Lignières' verses at the request of the author, Chapelain is said to have expressed the following opinion: “Monsieur le chevalier, vous avez beaucoup d'esprit et de bonnes rentes: c'en est assez, croyez-moi, ne faites point de vers. La qualité de poète est méprisable dans un homme de qualité comme vous.” Cf. Collas, Chapelain, pp. 259–264, for the whole story of this quarrel.

²¹¹ Paris: Chamhoudry, 1656.—Cf. E. Magne, Un Ami de Cyrano de Bergerac. Le Chevalier de Lignières (Paris: Sansot, s.d.), pp. 63–72.

²¹² Paris, Courbé. Lachèvre, Bibliog. des Rec. Coll., iii, 422.

²¹³ Those against Chapelain, Conrart, and Gombauld are given on p. lxi of Lachèvre's ed. of La Chronique des Chapons et des Gelinottes du Mans d'Etienne Martin de Pinchesne (Paris: H. Leclerc, 1907), which also contains La Pénitence, pp. 96–98.

²¹⁴ “Je vous envois ces épigrammes,” he says with all the arrogance of youth, “qui sont cause que les Conrarts et les Chapelains me craignent plus qu'ils ne m'ayment. Le Siècle m'est obligé d'avoir généreusement publié leurs défauts, et d'avoir dessillé les yeux de ceux qui les tenoient pour des oracles. Ce n'est pas qu'on ne vist leurs imperfections mais on n'osoit pas les descouvrir et parier contre les Tyrans. Je n'ay jamais mieux fait que de m'ériger en satirique. et je suis ravy d'avoir abattu leur fierté insupportable. Il falloit que quelqu'un reprimast l'insolence de la vanité de la cabale. Le ciel m'a suscité pour estre leur fléau et pour la pousser à bout.” Cf. Collas, Chapelain, p. 262, where the answer of Mme de la Suze is given in full, and E. Magne, Mme de la Suze (Paris: Mercure de France, 1908), pp. 227–231.

²¹⁵ Menagiana, i, 144.

²¹⁶ Translated by H. Brown, op. cit., pp. 78–79, from Boulliau's Latin letter of Feb. 5, 1658 now in the Bibl. Nat. MS. f.f. 13027, fol. 119.

²¹⁷ Cf. Charles Arnaud, Les Theories Dramatiques en France au XVIIe Siècle (Paris: Picard, 1888) pp. 44–46.

²¹⁸ According to Georges Monval editor of the modern edition of Guéret's La Promenade de Saint-Cloud (1669) (Paris: Librairie des bibliophiles, 1888), p. v, n. 2, where he also says that Mme Deshoulières had been admitted.

²¹⁹ Variously known as Mile Desjardins, Mme de la Chatte, and finally as Mme Desjardins, under which name she collaborated with d'Aubignac in the tragedy, Manlius, in 1662.

²²⁰ This was published with Blondeau's and Saint-Germain's in Guéret's Entretiens sur l'Eloquence (Paris: Jean et René Guignard, 1666). Both of Guéret's appeared in P. de Saint-Glas' Divers Traites d'Histoire, de Morale et d'Eloquence (1672).

²²¹ Cf. Le Parnasse Réformé (Paris: Thomas Jolly, 1668), pp. 79–80, and La Guerre des Auteurs, pp. 137–140.

²²² Qualities which they also abhor in Balzac, whom Guéret accuses of even appropriating Ogier's Apologie and of corrupting by his influence the style of Pierre Le Moyen, whom Guéret considers the only real poet of the moment. Cf. La Guerre des Auteurs, pp. 171–177, and La Promenade de Saint-Cloud, pp. 67–72, 73–75, and 89–94.

²²³ Ibid., pp. 48–62.

²²⁴ Paris: P. Trabouillet, 1663. Some copies are printed by Loyson.

²²⁵ Paris: Théodore Girard, 1671. It was bound with Le Parnasse Réformé. La Promenade de Saint-Cloud was intended to form a trilogy with these two but did not appear until 1751 with the fragments of the Borboniana at the end of Fr. Bruys' Mémoires Historiques.

²²⁶ Cf. Œuvres de Boileau, ed. Berriat-Saint-Prix (Paris: C. H. Langlois, 1830), ii, 447, Poésies Diverses XXVII. This novel appeared as Macarise, ou la Reine des Iles Fortunées, histoire allégorique (Paris).

²²⁷ La Promenade, pp. 7–29.

²²⁸ Boileau had attacked Chapelain privately in 1663. Whereupon the victim, according to Des Réaux, complained to Lamoignon that it was unworthy of him to receive such a man in his house. The latter then offered to reconcile the two but neither would consent and Boileau composed the epigram to Lamoignon beginning “Chapelain vous renonce et se met en courroux.” Cf. E. Magne, Bibliographie Générale des Œuvres de Nicolas Boileau (Paris: L. Giraud-Badin, 1929), ii, 145.

²²⁹ Menagiana, i, 145–146, which gives the text of this satire on pp. 146–161. A careful investigation of more recent discussions of the composition of this satire offers nothing essentially contradictory to this statement.

²³⁰ Published by Dubreuil in 1664 with a privilège of Jan. 15, 1656, enregistrement of Jan. 26, 1656, and achevé d'imprimer of Dec. 3, 1656. It is reproduced in Pellisson, Hist. de l'Acad.fr., ii, 498–502.

²³¹ Although he was sincere in his opinions in all probability, it must be remembered that d'Aubignac had never succeeded in entering the French Academy and that his long association with the salons, from that of la vicomtesse d'Auchy to Mile de Scudéry, had imparted to him a practical attitude towards literary circles quite foreign to the other groups studied here.

²³² where he says that although not yet equal to the French Academy: “Que ne pouvonsnous point espérer quand nos travaux auront été communs dans I'espace de vingt ans, quand nous aurons mis en société nos méditations, nos recherches, nos veilles, nos efforts?”

²³³ In his edition of La Promenade de Saint-Cloud, p. v, n. 2.

²³⁴ Cf. Lettre de Monsieur Boscheron à Monsieur de … contenant un Abrégé de la Vie de l'Abbé d'Aubignac et l'Histoire de ses Ouvrages, signed Aug. 25, 1715, and published as Article V of A. H. Sallengre's Mémoires de Littérature (La Haye: Henri du Sauzet, 1715), i, 311. This letter and Arnaud, op. cit., pp. 44–52, are the two most important sources for information on this group.

²³⁵ Patin, Correspondance, p. 288, Lettre à Falconnet le 20 mai 1659.

²³⁶ Vuilhorgne, p. 62.

²³⁷ Samfiresco, p. 28.

²³⁸ Bourdaloue and Racine are mentioned with Boileau and Patin as most assiduous visitors. Cf. Rymaille des plus belles Bibliothières, p. 91.

²³⁹ Vissac, pp. 88, 198–199. Lamoignon, who was marquis de Bâville, has entertained these Latin poets at his estate, whose charms they sing in numerous poems composed at this time.

²⁴⁰ Who dedicated to Lamoignon his Satire de la Fortune, Lettre Morale, published in 1660, later inserted in his Entretiens et Lettres Poéliques (1665), and reproduced by Fleuret et Perceau in Les Satires Françoises du XVIIe Siècle, ii, 70–90.

²⁴¹ Whom he made bailli de Bâville and celebrated his installation with a big dinner. Cf. Menagiana, ii, 189.

²⁴² Vuilhorgne, p. 67.

²⁴³ Menagiana, i, 206–207.

²⁴⁴ Sainte-Beuve, Lundis, viii, 126–127.

²⁴⁵ Rymaille, p. 91.

²⁴⁶ Patin, Correspondance, pp. 275, 278, 290, 313, 345, 355–356, and 364.

²⁴⁷ Four chants in 1674 and the whole work in 1683. Cf. Magne's Bibliographie, i, 165–166, 218–221, and 240–245.

²⁴⁸ Mary T. Noss, La Sensibilité de Boileau (Paris: J. Gamber, 1932), pp. 106, 139–140, and the Avis au Lecteur du Lutrin, ed. Berriat-Saint-Prix, ii, 282–284.

²⁴⁹ Menagiana, i, 206–207.

²⁶⁰ Magne quotes an undated letter postponing for a week the reading of a play on which Racine was still working. Cf. Bibliographie, i, 212.

²⁵¹ Noss also points out that this circle exercised a most salutary influence over Boileau's own life after 1670. Cf. op. cit., pp. 59–61.