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Gardez pour l'ennemi la furéur de vos

Géans, arrétez-vous;

coups.

cries aloud till the air resounds with led; when a fourth giant arrives, and his clamar. His neighbors as- separates the rivals by repeating the semble and surround him. Re-following lines: member, dear moralizer, say they, what you yourself have said to us. When I gave you lessons, replied he, when I then offered consolation, it was you who had lost wives but now...it is mine who is dead. X. Journal de litterature, des sciences et des

arts.

BIOGRAPHY.

FEW of our readers we presume are unacquainted with the name of the celebrated French satirist BOILEAU. The following sketch of his life and writings is compiled from an English translation of the Boleana, connected with the meagre account of this great poet, by which it is prefaced.

NICHOLAS BOILEAU, Surnamed DESPREAUX, a celebrated French poet, was born at the village of Crone near Paris, in 1636. The

Giants, retire, and cease these rude alarms;
And launch on foes the fury of your arms."

His

He lost his father and mother early in life. His friends advised him to assume the profession of the law, when he had gone through a course of philosophical studies. In compliance with this advice, Boileau soon became a proficient in legal knowledge, and was admitted advocate at the age of twenty. mind, pure and elegant, was soon disgusted with the quibbles and chicanery of his new profession; and he quitted it to enter into another, which promised to be more satisfactory to his feelings, and more edifying to his understanding. He for some time applied himself to theological authors; but absurd interpretations of holy mysteries, violent disputes on matters of little moment, and speculations involved in tenfold darkness, drove the sagacious Boileau from the cloisters of the Sorbonne.— Left to himself, he discovered the real infancy of Boileau was painful and irk-powers of his mind; and, employed on some. He was at eight years old cut criticism and poetry, he created envy for the stone; and he felt all his life- among the best poets of his age by his time the consequences of the operation. superior genius, and awed the indifferHaving lost his mother when very ent writers by the acuteness and severiyoung, and his father being absorbed ty of his strictures. The sagacity of his in business, the education of this emi-intellect taught him to discover the folnent poet was entrusted to an old fe- lies and vices of his contemporaries, and male servant, who treated him with the integrity of his own heart inclined great harshness. He had to endure him to reprobate them. Boileau became Hikewise the hatred and jealousy of his a writer as formidable by the harshness elder brother, Giles Boileau; from of his censures, as fascinating by the wit whose presence he used to fly, by hid- and humor of his satire. ing himself, and passing his time in a When he first commenced his satiriturret near the top of the house which exile he endured till his fifteenth year. from his friends, that he was about to cal career, he received admonitory hints Boileau used to say, that if life was stir up against himself an host of formiagain offered him on the terms of re-dable enemies, who would continually passing his miserable early years, he should refuse to accept of it. His sub. lime genius overcame all these disadvantages. He was but just placed in the fourth class, when, with a mind improved, and inspired with the perusal of ancient writers, he felt an ardor of being a poet, and he attempted a comedy. "I introduced,” he used to say, "three giants on the stage, preparing to combat with each other, on account of a lady with whom they were all enamor

:

keep their eyes upon him on every op portunity. "I care not for them," answered the intrepid satirist, "I will endeavor to be an honest man, and I shall defy their malice."

The predictions of his friends were fully verified for when the satires of Boileau first came out, the rage and indignation occasioned by them among the higher as well as the lower classes of poets, &c. were universal and ex

treme. M. Fourcroi, a famous lawyer, as it were with his thoughts, display al -whose disposition in general was jeal-most as much invention as the first pro-ous and malignant, and especially against M. Despreaux, circulated a printed paper all over Paris, couched in these terms: "Be it known to all who feel themselves injured by and inimical to some lately published satires, that a meeting will be held on such a day, and on such an hour, at the house of Sieur Rohet, an attorney; and a court composed of malcontents will sit, to con sider the ways and means of redressing the complaints of those whose characters are aspersed by the aforesaid Satires."

Notwithstanding his professed independence Boileau was not superior to uneasinesses occasioned by the abuse published against him; but was the first person to applaud any ingenious satire levelled at him. "I look on myself," says he, "like an enchanted hero; whom the blows of his enemies either do not reach, or wound very slightly. With all their malice (he would add) they have not found out the vulnerable part of Achilles."-"Where does it lie?" said a friend. "That I shall not tell you," replied the satirist: "you must find out that." It is probable that he alluded to the sameness of his writings, particularly in his prefaces; the character of which is too monotonous.

duction of a thought entirely newt."— Speaking of Boileau's great work, the Art of Poetry, the same elegant, acute,. and candid critic above quoted ob serves: "The brevity of his precepts, enlivened by proper imagery, the justness of his metaphors, the harmony of his numbers, as far as Alexandrine lines will admit; the exactness of his method, the perspicacity of his remarks, and the energy of his style, all duly considered, may justify my opinion that it is the best composition of the kind extant. It is scarcely to be conceived how much is comprehended in four short cantos. He that has well digested these, cannot be said to be ignorant of any important rule of poetry. The tale of the Physician turned Architect, in the fourthcanto, is told with vast pleasantry. It. is to this work be owes his immortality. and which was of the highest utility to his nation, in diffusing a just way of thinking and writing, banishing every species of false wit, and introducing a general taste for the manly simplicity of the ancients, on whose writings this poet had formed his taste."

The high opinion entertained by LouisXIV, of the taste and talents of our poet,. is evinced by the following anecdote.

The old Duke de la Feuillade, meeting Boileau one day in the Gallery of Versailles, repeated to him a sonnet of Charleval, which ended with these lines:. Ne regardez point mon visage, Regardez seulemeat à ma tendre amitié§ The Poet answered, that he saw nothing remarkably good in the sonnet; and objected to those two lines, on account. of the play of words which they contained. The Duke perceiving the Princess Royal coming through the gallery, he read the sonnet hastily to her as she passed. The lady told him it was very fine. The Duke returned to Boileau ;; and in a sneering manner observed,. that he must have a very fastidious. taste, if he disapproved of verses which both the King and Princess had praised. "I do not doubt the King's superiority in taking towns, and gaining battles nor do I doubt the talents of Madame

His early and profound knowledge of ancient authors exalted the literary character of the poet beyond the malice of petty competition. "Those who flattered themselves that they should diminish the reputation of Boileau, by printing in the manner of a commentary, at the bottom of each page of his works, the many lines he has borrowed from Horace and Juvenal, were grossly deceived. The verses of the ancients, which this poet turned into French with so much address, and which he hath happily made so homogeneous, and of a piece with the rest of the work, that every thing seems to be conceived in a continued train of thought, by the very same person, confer as much honour on M. Despreaux as the verses which are purely his own. The original turn which he gives to his translations, the boldness of his expressions, so little forced and natural, that they seem to be born ↑ Warton's Essay on Pope, vol. 1. The Fruits, who wrote the Journals Fix your eyes no more on my counte of Trevoux, strongly object plagarism tonance, but fix them only on the fenderness of my friendship.

Boileau.

THE EMERALD.

the Princess: but in regard to a know- | coxcomb." On other occasions he used to restrain the panegyrist' by saying, "I would rather people would read me than praise me." Boileau was languid

66

ledge of poetry" replied Boileau, "I think I am at least their equal." The Duke ran in great haste to the King; and told him, with great marks of dis-in conversation; a defect which he begust and indignation, the arrogant trayed from his early years. He imspeech of the poet. My Lord," re- proved very much on acquaintance. plied the King, "I am sorry to say that His method of discoursing was pleasing I am obliged to confess that M. Boileau and affable: to use his own expressions As perfectly in the right." on the subject, it had neither claws nor The confidence of the King is made talons. To men of merit he was by no more manifest by the appointment of means niggard of his praise; but peBoileau, in 1677, in conjunction with dants, and shallow pretenders to literRacine, to write his history. In the ature, felt the utmost severity of his campaign of Gand, Boileau and Racine wit. Candor and equity dictated his in consequence of that appointment, opinions on all occasions; and he has were ordered to follow the King to the well described these parts of his charfield of action, in which Louis had fre-acter, in the following two verses in his quently exposed himself to great dan-Art of Poetry:

ger. The courtiers intreated his Ma. L'ardeur de se montrer, et non pas de jesty to be more careful of his person: his historian begged that the Monarch

would not occasion him so soon to finish
his history; adding, that the cannon-
ball had come within seven paces of his
Majesty. "How far were you off it?"
asked the King. "A hundred," replied
the poct.
"And were you not in fear,"
"Yes, Sire, I was much alarmed for
your Majesty, and very much indeed for
myself."

66

médire,

Arma la vérité du vers de la satire.

Chant. ii.

Alike unskill'd in partial praise or
blame,
Truth arm'd with satire vindicates her
[name.

In 1684 he was chosen a member of 1701 he was elected pensionary of the the French Academy. In the year Academy of Inscriptions and Medals At the death of Racine, Boileau till the year 1705, when, being deaf and which place he filled with great honor came to court, to solicit the King to ap-infirm, he obtained leave to resign. point M. Valincourt his successor as joint-historiographer. M. Boileau," the remainder of his life tranquilly, He then quitted the court, and passed said the King, "you and I have suffered great loss in the late M. Racine," amongst a few friends. Boileau died in "It is some consolation, Sire," replied March 1711, at the age of 75. the poet, "that he met his last moments courageously, and like a Christtian, since he was always very fearful of death"-"Oh aye" replied the King, "I remember that you were the valiant men at the siege of Gand."

When this eminent satirist was on his death bed, his friends were willing dance in his recovery that the poet's to inspire him with a degree of confifeelings told him was groundless. He repeated the line in Malherbe :

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je suis vaincu du tems, je céde à son Time has prevail'd, I cannot but obey. outrage."

Racine used to relate a very singu lar instance of the satirist's powers of mimickry. Boileau (says Racine) once This critical acumen was not blunted undertook to imitate the steps of an ex- by age nor sickness, for during this traordinary dancer, whom he had seen, period a person begged leave to read to in the exhibition of his skill. Boileauhin anew tragedy; the satirist listened executed all the difficult steps and atti- to the two first scenes, and then extudes of the performer with great suc-claimed, “Why do you wish to hasten cess; though he had never been taught my end?" to dance, and never practised the art at any time before.

Although his satirical humour had Boileau was not insensible to praise, number of the friends of Boileau, who created him many enemies, yet the but uneasy when it did not appear inci- attended at his funeral, was very condentally given. When any one was too siderable. An old woman of the lower profuse of such incense, the poet ex-class, perceiving the multitude which claimed, "You shall not make me a filled the streets, observed shrewdly,

"A chance amusement polished hdfan age."

But it has been since discovered that the reverse is the fact; for Addison had collected his materials to the amount of three folio volumes.

The man had a great many friends, Youwa, in his poetical epistle to Tickforsooth, yet they say that he spoke ill ell, alluding to Addison's Spectators, of every body." This however was a says, vulgar error for he never, withheld his approbation from any composition in which he discovered instances of genius or talent. When a friend read to him a work of this description, the satisfaction which he feit flushed in his eyes, and thundered in his speech. Yet he seemed no longer master of opposite sensations to these, when any absurd specimen of verse or prose was brought before him.

Having exhausted our biographical materials, we may be permitted to add, that though the minor literati of his age were liberal in their calumnies on his character and conduct, as well as their attacks on his writings, yet the former will be viewed with candor by posterity, and the latter may be ranked with those which are destined to immortality.

Happiness.

Active in indoience, abroad we roam, In search of happiness, which dwells at home :

With vain parsuit fatigu'd, at length you'll find,

No place excludes it from an equal mind. Elphinston.

The French have been desirous in all ages and under all circumstances to attain universal sovereignty. This love of domination, this wish for national We shall close this sketch of the life ascendancy pervades all classes and is and writings of M. DESPREAUX with almost as powerful in the breast of the the lines written by Rousseau to be placed shoe-black, as the bosom of the Embeneath the portrait of this great poet. peror. Philosophers are not exempt To us they appear truly characteristic. from it, and no sober minded man can La vérité par lui démasqua l'artifice: resist an inclination to smile at the Le faux dans ses écrits par lui fut com-gravity with which the following passage in St. Pierre discloses the sentiments of that author. Speaking of Paris, he says,

justice;

battu; Mais toujours au merite, il sut rendre Et ses Vers furent moins la satyre du vice,

Que l'éloge de la vertu.

For the Emerald.
DESULTORY SELECTIONS,

AND ORIGINAL REMARKS.

"Time was when, on the faith of our political writers, I looked upon that city as too great. But I am now far from thinking that it is of sufficient extent and sufficiently majestic, to be the capital of a kingdom so flourishing. I could wish that, our sea ports excepted, there were no city in France but Paris; that our provinces were covered only with hamlets and villages, and subdiyided into small farms; and that, as there is but one centre in the kingdom, there might likewise be but one capital. Would to God it were that of all Europe, nay, of the whole earth; and that, as the contrary, it seems the duty of a phi-men, of all nations bring thither their losopher not only to exert his wisdom industry, their passions, their wants, for the benefit of the age in which he and their misfortunes, it should give lives, but to transmit his instructions to them back, in fortune, in enjoyment, in posterity. He should, therefore, by virtues and in sublime consolations, the committing them to writing, make them reward of that asylum which they there pass into the hearts of all his acquain-resort to seek!" Studies of Nature. tance, strangers, and future ages.

SOCRATES Used to say, that he had rather inscribe his sentiments in the hearts of men than on the skins of animais. But surely this wish would confine their utility to his neighbors.

Literary Labor.

On

ADDISON, before he commenced his Spectators, had amassed materials with the assiduity of a student.

La fille raisonnable.
Notre curé erie et s'emporte,
Il me défend d'aimer Lubin!
Il me dit d'aimer mon prochain,
Et Lubin demeure à ma porte.

SIR RICHARD STEELE, SAVAGE, and | More clung about the barge; fish under

PHILLIPS.

water

blind after.

I think the bargemen might, with easier
thighs,
Leyes,
Have row'd her thither in her people's
For howsoe'er, thus much my thoughts
have scann'd,
[land.

These three celebrated characters, Wept out their eyes of pearl, and swam after spending an evening together at a tavern in Gerrard-street, Soho, sallied out some time after midnight, in high glee and spirits. They were accosted by a tradesman, near the top of Hedgelane, who, after begging their pardon for addressing them on the subject, told them, that "at the top of the lane he had seen two or three suspiciouslooking fellows, who appeared to be bailiffs, so that if any of them were apprehensive of danger, he would advise them to take a different route."

Not one of them waited to thank the man, but flew off different ways; each conscious from the embarrassment of his own affairs, that such a circumstance was likely to happen to himself.

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INDOLENCE.

She had come by water, had she come by

Every great, rich and consequential man, who has not the wisdom to hold his tongue, must enjoy his privilege of talking, and there must be dull fellows to listen to him; again, if, by talking about what he does not understand, he gets into embarrassments, there must be clever fellows to help him out of them when he would be merry, there must be witty rogues to make him laugh; when he would be sorrowful, there must be sad rogues to sigh and groan and make long faces: as a great man must be never in the wrong, there must be hardy rascals, who will swear he is

always in the right; as he must never show fear,, of course he must never see danger; and as his courage must at no time sink, there must be friends at all times ready to prevent its being tried. Cumberland.

JUNIUS.

I consider Tristram Shandy as the most eccentric work of my time, and Junius the most acrimonious; we have heard much of his style; I have just been reading him over with attention, and I confess I can see but little to admire. The thing to wonder at is, that a secret, to which several must have been privy, has been so strictly kept; if Sir William Draper, who baffled him in some of his assertions, had kept his

Seneca has a very just observation onthis propensity of the mind. "Self constraint," says he, "is necessary, to force the mind into exertion." Cogenda mens, ut incipiet. The human appetite, at certain seasons, will grow languid, and by tasting food, regains its powers. It is necessary, with respect to the mind, that the disgust, the inap. titude to toil, should be over-ruled; and when once it is set in motion, the thoughts follow one another in abund-name out of sight, I am inclined to think ance, and with a facility which appeared impossible to the mind in a state of inaction.

Queen Elizabeth, who died at Greenwich, was brought thence to Whitehall by water in a grand procession. It was on this occasion, as Camden informs us, that the following quaint lines were

written.

The QUEEN was brought by water to
Whitehall;
[fall;
At every stroke the oars did tears let

he might have held up the cause of candor, with success. The publisher of Junius I am told was deeply guaran teed; of course, although he might not know his author, he must have known whereabouts to look for him. I never heard that my friend Lord George Germain was amongst the suspected authors, till by way of jest he told me so not many days before his death: I did not want him to disavow it, for there could be no occasion to disprove an absolute impossibility. The man who

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