neceffary to publish them in Holland, though the ift vol. was printed at Paris.

Many of our readers will, perhaps, be furprifed that the ftern, proud critic and fatirift, Boileau, after having been truly ennobled by his writings, had the filly vanity to pique himself upon the high antiquity of his lineage. Lewis XIV. in 1695, having established a commiffion of enquiry into the validity of titles affumed by the pretended nobleffe of his kingdom; in the fevere fcrutiny that was made, a fuit was commenced against the family of Boileau, who pretended that John Boileau, their anceftor, was ennobled in 1371 by Charles V. King of France. The poet, in a letter to his friend and commentator, Broffette, boafted of his having gained his caufe with flying colours. I have now (fays he) the patent in my 'poffeffion, which allows me a nobility of 400 years antiquity. However (fays D'ALEMBERT), fome perfons, very well informed and worthy of credit, have affured me that the fentence paffed in favour of Boileau's nobility was in confequence of his reputation as a poet, honoured with the protection of the King; that the titles had been fabricated by a man of the name of Haudiquer; and that many years after the tranfaction, a receipt had been found among his papers for 20 Louis d'ors, paid by Boileau for his fhare in the titles which Haudiquer had forged. The friends of the poet will doubtlefs fay that this money was not given as a bribe to an impoftor, but as a recompence to a genealogift; while others, prone to fcandal, may fay that he acted on the prudent and well-known axiom in law, that a judge well paid is always clear-fighted.' Be this as it will, obfcure ancestors could add nothing to the merits of Depreaux ; it is himself that gives a luftre to them; his own writings are his beft Lettres de Nobleffe.

Boileau had feveral brothers of very fingular characters: James, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and canon of the holy chapel, well known by a number of works in a peculiar ftyle, fome of which were not remarkable for decency; but these he wrote in Latin, left the Bifhops, he faid, fhould underftand and condemn them. This Doctor loved the Jefuits no more than his brother, the poet; he defcribed them as men who lengthened the Creed and fhortened the Commandments. As dean of the chapter of Sens, he was appointed to barangue the celebrated Prince of Condé when he paffed through the city. This great commander had a particular pleafure on thofe occafions, in difconcerting his panegyrifts, and tried to ftare them out of countenance; but the Doctor perceiving his intention, counterfeiting great confufion, addreffed him in the following manner: Your Highness will not be furprifed, I truft, at feeing me tremble in your prefence, at the head of a company of peaceful priefts; I should tremble fill more if I was at the head of 30,000 foldiers.'

Another

Another brother of Defpreaux, Boileau de Puimorin, was a man of wit as well as James, but was too much addicted to pleasure, and too idle for ftudy. The answer which he made to Chapelain's bitter invectives, who told him that he could not read, has ferved for a point to one of the fatirift's epigrams:

Shall a fcribe, cold and harsh, who deferves to be flead:
And who knows not his letters, at my faults be fquinting?
Alas! for my fins, I but too well can read,

Since the nonfenfe you write is fo frequently printing!

The death of Puimorin is afcribed to a very fingular caufe. He and fome friends agreed that the first of them who should die, would give the other an account of his fituation; and one of them dying foon after, Puimorin imagining that he had appeared to him in the night, was feized with a deep melancholy, which foon put an end to his existence.

Little is faid of a third brother of the poet, Jerome Boileau,, Register of the Parliament, except that he was a great gamefter, and when he was unfortunate, a great blafphemer. He married a capricious woman who was a violent vixen, and whose character is described by Boileau in feveral parts of his Satire againft Women. The Poet however lived in the fame houfe with her, after the decease of her husband; but he was not his wife.

Defpreaux, when a boy, was regarded by his father as heavy and ftupid, and was fo hardly used by him, and by his elder brothers, that he often declared if he could be reftored to infancy, on the hard conditions he had experienced, he would not accept them; and he always difputed the common opinion, that infancy is the happieft period of our lives. Can that time,' fays the Poet, be regarded as pleafant, in which we are never allowed to be free agents? It is in vain to say that all this reftraint and tyranny is for our good; of what use is it to be told the value of our chains when we have got rid of them, if we are infenfible to all but their weight while we carry them? It is but a poor kind of happiness that cannot be perceived, and it is ftill more worthlefs, if it seems a misfortune.' Not that Defpreaux thought the other parts of his life more happy than his infancy; all appeared to him equally miferable: youth tormented with paffions, maturity with cares, and old age with infirmities; and he feemed nearly of that philofopher's opinion, who, when he was afked, what was the happiest period of a man's life, answered, that which is past. It would be difficult,' faid Defpreaux, to determine this question; we are fure, however, that it is hardly ever the prefent time.'

The Duc de Montaufier, himself a Cynic, who had long spoken of the severity of Boileau's personal satires as intolerable, and injurious to fociety, was gained over to the Poet's party by

a fingle

a fingle ftroke of flattery, which verified, says D'ALEMBERT, the lines of La Fontaine :

Amuse the Great with adulation,

Your praise to all their faults extend,
Whate'er their former indignation,

The bait goes down, and you're their friend.

Boileau was fond of relating what paffed between him and his priest, concerning his fatires, at the time of confeffion. What is your occupation? fays the prieft. I am a poet-a vile trade, fays the priest; and of what kind is your poetry ?-Satire. -Still worse. And against whom do you write your fatires? -Against the authors of operas and romances.-Oh! for that matter, fays the confeffor, I fee no great harm in what you have done; and he gave him absolution immediately.

For the honour of Boileau, according to M. D'ALEMBERT, he made a proper diftinction in his fatires between folly and vice, never attacking bad taste and dunces with any other arms than ridicule, while vice and profligacy were treated with indignation.

After this, we have fome excellent reflections on the genius and originality of Boileau, which have been difputed as well as thofe of Pope. Voltaire, who frequently denied the equity of the decifions of Defpreaux in matters of criticifm, fays, in a letter to Helvetius, I agree with you that Boileau is not a fublime poet; but he executed admirably whatever he undertook. He is clear, easy, happy in his expreffion; he feldom rifes very high, but he never finks. Befide, the fubjects he treats are not of a kind to require great elevation.I fhall therefore always warmly recommend that kind of writing which he has fo well taught, that respect for the language, that quick fucceffion of ideas, the art and facility with which he conducts his reader from one fubject to another; and above all, his fimplicity, which is the fruit of true genius.'

The natives of France now fee, and can venture to cenfure, the vanity of Lewis XIV. and the grofs flattery of his panegyrifts. The rest of Europe had long feen the excess of both; but perhaps the fplendor of the prince, and the penfions of his poets, were objects of envy to other princes and other poets. The inexorable Boileau, who boafted that his chief ftudy and glory were to cenfure every thing elfe, became, he faid, a faithful hiftorian, in fpeaking of this prince, even before he was penfioned. But who would venture to fwear that the firft encomiums were not to gain, and the fubfequent to keep, his penfion? M. D'ALEMBERT's reflections on this fubject are those of a philofopher not much contaminated by monarchical ideas.

Adulation was carried to a more ridiculous excess by the Aatterers of Lewis XIV. than by thofe of any other prince of modern

.6

modern times. Voltaire compares him to a man who was fmothered with rofe-leaves. When the monarch complained to the Abbé d'Eftrées of the lofs of all his teeth, one after another: Sire,' fays the Abbé, who has any teeth?'. And in his 60th year, when his majefty afked another courtier what was his age-Oh Sir,' fays the courtier, the age of every body: I am fixty.'

It was the opinion of Father Hardouin, that moft of the claffical productions of ancient Rome had been written by the monks of the 13th century. I know nothing of all that (fays Boileau); but though I am not very partial to the monks, I fhould not have been forry to have lived with Friar Tibullus, Friar Juvenal, Dom Virgil, Dom Cicero, and fuch kind of folk.' Boileau was the firft who formed the national tafte of France, and by his tranflations and imitations gave his countrymen a true relifh for the epiftles and fatires of Horace, which before his time used to be much less efteemed than his odes.

Many of D'ALEMBERT's critical remarks and reflections are local, particularly in fpeaking of the quarrels and controverfies relative to the comparative merit of his countrymen. It is curious, however, to fee the viciffitudes of tafte and manners in a few years; and how fmall a number of the decifions of the moft refpectable members of the republic of letters of the laft age, have been confirmed by pofterity. Voiture, whom nobody reads at prefent, had an honour conferred on him at his deceafe, by the French academy going into mourning for him, which has never been beftowed on any fubfequent affociate.

Boileau's Satire againft Women, the moft bitter and outrageous of all, is faid to have arifen from his having early in life been jilted by a young perfon to whom he was going to be married, and who ran away with a Mosquetaire. If this will not confole the fair-fex, let us try what we can do further in accounting for his enmity. Racine the younger, and fon of his particular friend, fays that he never had a miftrefs, nor ever thought of marrying. Here is a natural and confirmed infenfibility which rendered him as unfit to judge of female charms as a deaf man to fpeak of mufic, or a blind one of painting. The exaggerated vices and foibles of a few are made general, and in thole blandifhments and virtues which captivate the reft of mankind, he was an inveterate infidel.

6

For the honour of French gallantry, he was attacked from all quarters, on the first publication of this fatire. His friend Racine confoled him as well as he could. Courage!' fays he, you have attacked a numerous corps, which is all tongue; but the ftorm will blow over.' Indeed the ftorm did ceafe after fame time, but the fubfequent calm was of no great fervice to the work; and this fatire against women, fays M. D'ALEMBERT,

7

has

has always borne the marks of violence with which it was brought into the world. Indeed, if we may judge by his writings, his love of mankind was limited to a very small number. But though blunt, harsh, and auftere by nature, he feldom carried his feverity into fociety, where his conversation was mild and gentle, and as he used to fay himself, without nails or claws. Many actions of benevolence and generofity are recorded of him, and it has been faid, that he was only cruel in verfe.

At the death of Colbert, the penfion which he had given to the poet Corneille was fupprefled, though this great man was poor, old, infirm, and dying. Boileau, on hearing of his lofs, flew to the King, in order to try if he could get the pension restored, offering to transfer his own to Corneille, and telling the monarch, that he fhould be ashamed to receive his bounty while fuch a man was in want of it. He bought Patru's library, as the Empress of Ruffia did that of Diderot, leaving him the ufe of it, to the time of his death. When Defpreaux died, he bequeathed almoft his whole poffeffions to the poor. He was attended at his funeral by a great number of perfons of rank and literature. How came this man (cries a woman in the street) to have so many friends? They fay he never spoke well of any body in his life.

Boileau and Perrault, after injuring the reputation of each other by epigrams and reproaches as much as they were able, till the public began to be tired with their difputes, were reconciled by the good offices of their common friends; which should have been put in practice fooner. The reconciliation was fincere on the part of Perrault; and Boileau addreffed to him a writing, which he called a letter of reconciliation, but in which, through all the forced compliments with which it abounded, it was not difficult to discover ftrong remains of fpleen and farcalm, which it is fo hard for a profeffed fatirift to eradicate. This letter was fo equivocal, and like a new attack, that a friend of Defpreaux faid to him on reading it, "I hope we are on lafting good terms together; but if we do happen to quarrel, let us never attempt to be reconciled: for I dread fuch reparation much more than abuse."

Perfonal fatire foon lofes its falt and piquancy; and the fatires of Boileau, as well as the Dunciad of Pope, are less read now than any of their other works. Abuse and indecency are equally unworthy of fuch writers, and unneceffary to their fame. Satire, fays M. D'ALEMBERT, will be always a ready resource to men of no genius; becaufe, whether keen or coarfe, gay or fplenetic, grofs or fubtle, it will be always offenfive, and conTequently read, and perhaps fecretly abetted, by the pretended friends of thofe to whom it is addreffed. A writer from whom fo little is expected, can never be in want of a fubject:

APP. REV. Vol. LXXIX.

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