Fortifia mes pas et m'apprit à marcher. C'est pour elle, en un mot, que j'ai fait vœu d'écrire. Mais quoi! répondrez-vous, Cotin nous peut-il nuire? - Je vous crois: mais pourtant on crie, on vous menace. Hé! mon Dieu! craignez tout d'un auteur en courroux, 1 -- Quinault, v. p. 218, n. 6. Taisez-vous. 2 Pradon (1632-1693), a poet of great vanity and little merit, whose Phaedra was opposed to Racine's by a cabal. V. p. 165. 3 Nicolas Perrot, sieur d'Ablancourt (1606-1664) earned an exaggerated reputation as a translator of classical authors. His merit was that through him the works of Thucydides, Xenophon, Lucian, Caesar, Tacitus and partly of Cicero became known to the general public of his time. Olivier Patru (1604-1681) by his speeches set the French bar an example of good taste and purity of style, which it greatly needed. In prose we should say: auxquelles je ne prétends pas. The construction is: tant de sots revêtus du nom d'auteur. En vain quelque rieur, prenant votre ) is l'honneur. Bo 230 pose this satire by an action yal commission had been issued to no had assumed the rank and crest of Boileau family victoriously proved their rom Jean Boileau, a secretary to the king, in 1371. However the poet soon loses sight and passes on to a general discussion of true and SATIRE XII. th satire, on l'Équivoque, which was the last literary effort man of seventy, is so weak that it has generally been left e editions published in France for the use of schools. II. LES ÉPÎTRES. (1669-1695). Boileau wrote his nine first epistles in the flower of his age, when his powers had reached maturity, and in outward form at least they are superior to the satires. The three last epistles belong to the period of the poet's decadence and show occasional traces of weakness. Boileau has frequently been blamed for the unceasing and fulsome homage he pays to Louis XIV in these epistles; and doubtless his praises of the Grand Monarque will appear exaggerated to any one not dazzled by external successes or blinded by national vanity. When, for instance, we find the poet exclaiming in the eighth epistle: Grand roi, cesse de vaincre, ou je cesse d'écrire, and remember that this apostrophe is addressed to a king who personally never gained a single victory, the effect produced is not so much sublime as ridiculous. The same remark applies to all that magnificent narrative of the crossing of the Rhine contained in the fourth epistle, which in France is regarded as a masterpiece of the kind, and which is one, as far as ele gance of style and beauty of description can make it so. The only thing wanting is a historical background of the picture; for when we come to look at the facts, we find that this heroïc feat of arms, which the poet blazons abroad with all the trumpets of Fame, consisted in Louis XIV having crossed with his army an almost waterless arm of the Rhine, without finding scarcely any resistance. Voltaire, who certainly cannot Que tu sais bien, Racine, à l'aide d'un acteur, N'a coûté tant de pleurs à la Grèce assemblée, Trouve loin du vulgaire un chemin ignoré, Avant qu'un peu de terre, obtenu par prière, any omissions IV. page 341, siècle de Louis XIV by Voltaire. Le passage du Rhin, says Napoleon I in his Mémoires, est une opération militaire de quatrième ordre." p. 190. 3 V. p. 144, n. 6. 2 V. The curé of St.-Eustache, which was Molière's parish, refused to bury him with the rites of the church; but the king induced the archbishop of Paris to hush up the matter, and Molière was buried in the cemetery of St.-Joseph. SATIRE X. The tenth satire, written against Women is imitated from Juvenal; it contains some fine passages but is disfigured by exaggeration. In the midst of all his vituperation of the sex, Boileau manages to pay Mme de Maintenon a very pretty compliment: A Paris, à la cour, on trouve, je l'avoue, Des femmes dont le zèle est digne qu'on le loue; SATIRE XI. The subject of the eleventh satire (1698) is l'honneur. Boileau was sixty years old when he wrote it, and his age somewhat impaired the vigour of his style. He was led to compose this satire by an action at law taken against his family. A royal commission had been issued to detect and punish all persons, who had assumed the rank and crest of nobles without title; but the Boileau family victoriously proved their right, which was derived from Jean Boileau, a secretary to the king, who had been duly anobli in 1371. However the poet soon loses sight of his original object and passes on to a general discussion of true and false honour. SATIRE XII. The twelfth satire, on l'Équivoque, which was the last literary effort of an old man of seventy, is so weak that it has generally been left out of the editions published in France for the use of schools. II. LES ÉPITRES. (1669-1695). Boileau wrote his nine first epistles in the flower of his age, when his powers had reached maturity, and in outward form at least they are superior to the satires. The three last epistles belong to the period of the poet's decadence and show occasional traces of weakness. Boileau has frequently been blamed for the unceasing and fulsome homage he pays to Louis XIV in these epistles; and doubtless his praises of the Grand Monarque will appear exaggerated to any one not dazzled by external successes or blinded by national vanity. When, for instance, we find the poet exclaiming in the eighth epistle: Grand roi, cesse de vaincre, ou je cesse d'écrire, and remember that this apostrophe is addressed to a king who personally never gained a single victory, the effect produced is not so much sublime as ridiculous. The same remark applies to all that magnificent narrative of the crossing of the Rhine contained in the fourth epistle, which in France is regarded as a masterpiece of the kind, and which is one, as far as elegance of style and beauty of description can make it so. The only thing wanting is a historical background of the picture; for when we come to look at the facts, we find that this heroïc feat of arms, which the poet blazons abroad with all the trumpets of Fame, consisted in Louis XIV having crossed with his army an almost waterless arm of the Rhine, without finding scarcely any resistance. Voltaire, who certainly cannot be charged with having detracted from the glory of Louis XIV, has given a perfectly simple and truthful account of the occurrence, which entirely disposes of Boileau's high-flown panegyric.1 To be just, we must however remember the peculiar position in which Boileau stood towards Louis XIV. A writer without any means of his own had no alternative in those days but to live upon the bounty of the monarch or some other great patron of letters, for the independence which modern writers achieve by the success and sale of their works was out of the question in a time when the sale of 500 copies of any particular book was regarded as an enormous success. The king's liberality alone enabled Boileau to live at leisure and give his time to literary composition, and his high-flown praises were the natural tribute expected as a right by his patron. Moreover Boileau was undoubtedly sincere in his admiration of the hero, whose exploits he sang; and even in our own day it is not very often we meet with Frenchmen sufficiently enlightened to discriminate between true and false glory and to value at their true worth the brilliant victories and the magnificence of the Grand Monarque. We reprint the greater part of the seventh epistle (1677), which is rightly considered the best. It is addressed to Racine, whose Phaedra had proved a failure on the stage, owing to a wretched cabal (v. p. 227, n. 2). L'UTILITÉ DES ENNEMIS. Que tu sais bien, Racine, à l'aide d'un acteur, Jamais Iphigénie, en Aulide immolée, 2 Trouve loin du vulgaire un chemin ignoré, Avant qu'un peu de terre, obtenu par prière, 1 V. page 341, siècle de Louis XIV by Voltaire. Le passage du Rhin, says Napoleon I in his Mémoires, est une opération militaire de quatrième ordre." p. 190. 2 4. The curé of St.-Eustache, 3 V. p. 144, n. 6. which was Molière's parish, refused to bury him with the rites of the church; but the king induced the archbishop of Paris to hush up the matter, and Molière was buried in the cemetery of St.-Joseph. |