De Malignitate Herodoti, p. 871. ed. Frank- | Charles VII., king of France, as he has re

fort.)

L. S. AMEIPSIAS (Αμειψίας), a poet of the old Attic comedy, who lived during the time of the Peloponnesian war, and was a contemporary of Aristophanes, who appears (Rana, 14.) to ridicule him for his low wit, by which he endeavoured to make his audience laugh. But his comedies were nevertheless very highly thought of by the Athenians, for in the year в. с. 424 he gained a victory over the Clouds of Aristophanes with a piece called Connos (the name of one of the teachers of Socrates), and again in B. c. 415, he was successful against the Birds of Aristophanes in a comedy called The Merry Fellows (Κωμασταί). Respecting his life we know nothing, except that the scholiast on Aristophanes (Vesp. 1164.) conjectures that he was an effeminate person.

Be

sides the names of the two comedies mentioned above, we know those of seven others; but all are lost with the exception of some fragments, which scarcely enable us to form a correct estimate of his merit as a poet. They are collected in A. Meineke, "Frag

menta Comicorum Græcorum." See the same author's "Quæstionum Scenicarum Specimen," ii. 42, &c.; and "Historia Critica Comicorum Græcorum," p. 199, &c., where all the passages of ancient writers referring to Ameipsias are given.

L. S.

A MELESA'GORAS ( ̓Αμελησαγόρας) of Chalcedon, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus one of the most ancient Greek historians. Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of an Athenian writer of the history of Attica ('Ατθίς) of the name of Melesagoras, from whose work Philochorus, Androtion, Hellanicus, Hecataeus, and others derived a great part of their information. Both are called authors of Atthids, and are generally supposed to be the same person. A fragment of the Atthis is preserved in Antigonus Carystius. Maximus Tyrius speaks of one Melesagoras of Eleusis who lived at Athens as a sage and a prophet, but this appears to be

2.

corded at the commencement of the life of
that prince. He left two historical works,
which remain in MS. in the king's library at
Paris. They are 1. "Historia de rebus
a Carolo VII., Francorum rege, et suo tem-
pore in Gallia gestis, Libris quinque."
"Historiarum de rebus gestis a Ludovico XI.
Libri septem." There are, or were, two
copies of these works in the library, both
supposed to have been written in the sixteenth
century. A considerable number of extracts
from the History of Louis XI., illustrative of
the history of Liège and other towns in the
Low Countries, are given by Martene and
Durand in their "Veterum Scriptorum am-
plissima Collectio," tom. iv. p. 742, seq.
It is stated in the Biographie Universelle
that Amelgard was charged by Charles VII.
with the work of revising the proceedings
against Jeanne or Joan of Arc, and that he
drew up "an examination of that work of
iniquity." We are not aware of the authority
for this statement. (Martene and Durand,
Observatio prævia ad excerpta ex Amelgardi
libro, &c.; Catalogus Codicum Manuscripto-
rum Bibliothecæ Regiæ, Paris, 1744, pars iii.
tom. iv. Nos. 5962, 5963.; Le Long, Biblio-
thèque Historique de la France, ed. Paris, 1769,
tom. ii. Nos. 17268. 17327.; Jöcher, Allgem.
Gelehrten-Lexicon; Adelung, Supplement to
Jöcher.)
J. С. М.

AMELIE. [AMALIE.]
AMELIER. [ANE'LIER.]

AMELIN, JEAN DE, the earliest French translator of Livy, was born at Sarlat in Perigord, and served in the army of Henry the Second. He was for some time gentleman-at-arms to Armand de Biron, afterwards the celebrated marshal of France. The king is said to have been highly pleased with a poem in his honour by Amelin, who is believed to have produced many other original compositions of the same nature; but the only one which is known to have been printed is a "Hymne à la Louange de M. le Duc de Guise," Paris, 1588. His principal publica

altogether a different person from the his-tions were his translations from Livy: that

torian. It has been conjectured by some critics that the Mnesagoras in Apollodorus and the Ameliagoras in the scholiast on Euripides are only miswritten names for Amelesagoras. (Dionysius Halicarnasseus, De Thucydidis Charactere, p. 138. ed. Sylburg; Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata, vi. 629. ed. Sylburg; Antigonus Carystius, Histor. Mirabil., 12.; Maximus Tyrius, Dissertat. 38.; Apollodorus, iii. 10. 3.; Scholiast on Euripides, Alcest., 2.; Vossius, De Historicis Græcis, p. 22. ed. Westermann; C. and J. Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum, p. 81.)

L. S.

AMELGARD, a French historian of the fifteenth century, of whom little appears to be known. He was a presbyter of Liège, and was admitted to familiar intercourse with

of the "Conciones" appeared first (Paris, 1554, 8vo.), and was followed by a complete version of the third Decade (Paris, 1559, fol.), with the " Arguments" of Florus, and notes and annotations. Ronsard, in his poems, has devoted a piece of some length to the praise of Amelin's translation, which, he observes, will he trusts incite a thousand others to follow his example, and thus enable the French youth to study the best Greek and Latin authors in their own tongue, without spending all their time in trying to comprehend mere words, "like parrots shut up in a cage." From Ronsard we learn that Amelin was not only a poet, but a philosopher, an orator, and an historian; but no other works of his than those already mentioned have survived to the present day. (La Croix du

Maine and Du Verdier, Bibliothèques Fran- | ̓Αμέλιος; Porphyrius, Vita Plotini; Eusebius,
çoises, edit. Juvigny, i. 438.; Ronsard,
Œuvres, Paris, 1623, fol., p. 1269-1271;
Article by Weiss in Biographie Universelle.)
J. W.

public affairs to devote the remainder of his ❘ vernement de Venise." 12mo. Paris, 1676.

days to learning, architecture, and agriculture, it is evident that he must have lived at least to the age of sixty, that is, down to the year 1586. (Adam, Vitæ Germanorum Jurisconsultorum; Sachs, Badensche Geschichte, iv. 175, &c.; Pantaleon, Heldenbuch, vol. iii.; F. Molter, in Ersch und Gruber's Allgem. Encyclopädie, iii. 344.)

L. S.

AMELOT, NICHOLAS, or ABRAHAM NICHOLAS, as he is variously named, sieur de la Houssaye, commonly called Amelot de la Houssaye, was born at Orleans in February, 1634. Amelot tells us of himself that his family was ancient, and that he was educated in the university of Paris. This is in a Déclaration, inserted in the second edition of his translation of Paolo Sarpi's history of the council of Trent, by way of reply to attacks which the publication of that translation had brought upon him. "I am a good Catholic, and so is all my family, which have been so for more than three hundred years.... But having been brought up and educated in the Gallican church, and in the university of Paris, of which I have the honour to be a member, I believe and shall always believe what they believe and teach, touching matters of discipline and of ecclesiastical jurisdiction." We learn from himself also, in the preface to his history of the Venetian government, and in the article "St. André, N. P." in his "Mémoires Historiques, Politiques, et Littéraires," that he went in 1669 as secretary to the President Nicholas Prunier St. André, ambassador from France to Venice, and stayed at Venice in that capacity for three years. Amelot speaks of this embassy in the article "St. André" in his Mémoires. The most important event during the embassy, according to Amelot, was an advantage gained by M. St. André over the Marquis de Fuentes, Spanish ambassador at Venice, in that contest for precedence which had for some time been carried on between French and Spanish ambassadors at every court. After his return from Venice in 1671, Amelot appears to have obtained no further political employment, and to have devoted himself to literature as a means, and, as it proved to him in the end, a very insufficient means, of subsistence.

The very little more that is known of Amelot's life may be told in the way of a rnnning commentary on a list of his works and translations. The following list is arranged chronologically. It contains one or two works not mentioned in Niceron's list. The list in Quérard's "La France Littéraire" is singularly deficient.

1. "Abrégé du Procès fait aux Juifs de Metz avec plusieurs Arrêts du Parlement." 12mo. Paris, 1670. 2. "Rélation du Conclave de 1670 pour l'E'lection de Clement X." 12mo. Paris, 1676. 3. "Histoire du Gou

The materials for this work, Amelot says
in the preface, were "ambassadors' letters
and papers which have been communicated
to me; the ancient annals of the republic,
whence I have drawn my examples and my
facts; and, above all, the information which
I have been able to procure at the fountain-
head, during the three years that I have
had the honour of being employed at Venice,
which is, indeed, the origin of a work to
which otherwise I should never have di-
rected myself." The publication of this
history gave offence to the senate of Ve-
nice, which disliked the mysteries of its
government being laid open, and which, as
we gather from a "Mémoire pour servir à
la Défense de l'Histoire du Gouvernement
de Venise," appended to the supplement to
the history published by Amelot the year
after, remonstrated with the French govern-
ment, and endeavoured to get the work sup-
pressed. But in this they do not appear to
have succeeded. 4. "Supplément à l'Histoire
du Gouvernement de Venise." 12mo. Paris,
1677. This is an abridged translation of
Paolo Sarpi's history of the dispute between
Pope Paul V. and the republic of Venice
(Storia delle Cose passate tra Paolo V. e la
Republica de Venezia), together with a col-
lection of documents concerning the dis-
pute. 5. "Examen de la Liberté originaire
de Venise, traduite de l'Italien, avec une
Harangue de Louis Hélian, Ambassadeur de
France contre les Venétiens, traduite du Latin,
et des Remarques historiques." 12mo. Ra-
tisbon, 1677. The first part is a translation
of a celebrated tract entitled "Squittino della
Liberta Veneta," which had been rigor-
ously suppressed at Venice, and which had
been attributed to several eminent persons;
among others, to Don Alfonso de la Cueva,
the Spanish ambassador at Venice, who or-
ganised in 1618 that formidable conspiracy
against the Venetian government to which
English literature owes Otway's tragedy of
"Venice Preserved." Amelot dedicated this
publication to the Emperor Leopold I., and
in his dedication attributes the original tract
to Alfonso de la Cueva. He informs the
emperor also that his reason for appending
Louis Hélian's speech, in which, at the diet
of Augsburg in 1510, he had conjured all
the powers of Europe to unite themselves
against their common enemy, the Turks,
was to aid the object of European peace, for
which the congress of Nimeguen was then
sitting. 6. "Suite de l'Histoire du Gouverne-
ment de Venise, où l'Histoire des Uscoques,
traduite de l'Italien de Minucio Minucci,
archévêque de Zara, et de Fra Paolo Sarpi."
12mo. Paris, 1680. This work completes a
series on Venetian history. Amelot says in
the preface, that in publishing a tale which
redounds to the glory of Venice, and in
translating from the works of two so eminent

Venetians as Minucio Minucci and Paolo | government and almost the whole nation on

Sarpi, he hopes to show that he has no design of systematically decrying Venice; and he adds that he has an intention of translating all Sarpi's works into French. The four last-mentioned works were reprinted together in three vols. 12mo., Amsterdam, 1695; and there is another edition, 1705. It appears from a mention of Amelot in Bayle's "Nouvelles de la République des Lettres" for July, 1684 (tome i. p. 460.), that he had been in the Bastille for something which he had written. There is no mention of this in any of Amelot's prefaces; but Bayle's statement is unequivocal, and it may be conjectured from the nature of the publication, and from the pains taken in his next to conciliate the Venetian government, that this misfortune may have been brought upon him by the "Examen de la Liberté originaire de Vénise.” 7. “ Mémoires pour la Minorité de Louis XIV." 12mo. Villefranche, 1680. This is said by Niceron to be merely a réchauffé of the "Mémoires du Duc de la Rochefoucauld," with Amelot's usual contribution of historical and political notes. 8. "Tibère, Discours politiques sur Tacite, par le Sieur de la Mothe Josseval." 4to. Amsterdam et Paris, 1683. Amelot's reasons for adopting this pseudonyme, under which he also published in the same year his translation of the history of the council of Trent, are unknown. It does not appear to have been designed to conceal the author, and certainly had not that effect. A second edition of the Tibère in 1684 has Amelot's name on the title-page. This work is a running commentary on the first six books of the Annals of Tacitus, which are occupied with the reign of Tiberius; hence the name of Tibère. It is a work of much industry, Amelot's object being to illustrate all passages having in any degree the character of general political remarks by parallel passages taken chiefly from Tacitus himself, with occasional help from Philip de Commines and Machiavelli. Amelot does not lay claim to the merit of originality: "the design and plan of the book are such," he says in the preface, "that it may be said that it is all mine, and yet that none of it is mine." 9. "Histoire du Concile de Trente, de Fra Paolo Sarpi, Théologien du Sénat de Venise, traduite par le Sieur de la Mothe Josseval avec des Remarques historiques, politiques, et morales." 4to. Amsterdam et Paris, 1683. Though published under a pseudonyme, this translation was known from the first to be Amelot's. Published at a time when the controversy between Rome and the Gallican church was raging, it offended the advocates of the papal power; and, as we learn from the "Déclaration " in the second edition which has been already quoted, the monks presented three memorials to the minister for its suppression. But Amelot now had the

his side; and in the national excitement for the liberty of the Gallican church, a work opposed in tendency to the assumptions of papal power was warmly received, and found a large sale. (Chaufepié, Nouveau Dictionnaire, &c. art. "Amelot.") Niceron says that Amelot made his translations from a Latin version, and that it is very incorrect. It was severely criticised in a letter published in the "Nouvelles de la République des Lettres" for October, 1685. Amelot replied in the same publication for December, and assuming the Abbé de St. Réal to be the author, made a violent attack on him. This brought a rejoinder from the abbé, who denied having written the first letter, but adopted the criticisms. This correspondence is printed in "Œuvres de M. l'Abbé de St. Réal," 3 tom. La Haye, 1726, tom. iii. pp. 186-201. The writer of the first letter was M. Simon, the celebrated biblical critic, who has included it in his "Lettres Critiques, &c." 12mo. Basle, 1699. Amelot's translation has been superseded by that of Courayer, in 3 vols. 4to. 10. "Le Prince de Machiavel, revu par le traducteur, avec des Remarques politiques et historiques." 12mo., Paris, 1683. Amelot's preface, in which he defends Machiavelli from the charges of atheism, and of confounding moral distinctions, has been criticised with unfair severity by Voltaire in his preface to Frederic King of Prussia's "Examen du Prince." "The best, perhaps, that is to be said for Amelot is, that he translated Machiavel's 'Prince,' and vindicated its maxims, rather with a design to make his book sell than to convince. He talks a great deal of state policy in his dedication; but a man who had been secretary to an embassy, and did not know the secret of keeping out of poverty, could know little, methinks, of state policy." (Œuvres de Voltaire, tom. xlvii. p. 473. ed. 1785.) 11. "L'Homme de Cour, traduit de l'Espagnol de Balthasar Gracian." 12mo. Paris, 1684. 12. "Traité des Bénéfices, traduit de l'Italien de Fra Paolo Sarpi par M. l'Abbé de St. Marc, Académicien de la Crusca." 12mo. Paris, 1685. Here Amelot adopts another pseudonyme, without any known reason. 13. "La Morale de Tacite, extraite de ses Annales et Histoires. Premier Essai, de la Flatterie." 12mo. Paris, 1686. In an introduction to this little work, Amelot passed in review all the translators and commentators of Tacitus, and handled very severely Perrot d'Ablancourt's translation. This called forth a pamphlet from M. Fermont d'Ablancourt, nephew of Perrot, entitled "M. Perrot d'Ablancourt vengé, ou Amelot de la Houssaye convaincu de ne pas parler François et d'expliquer mal le Latin," in which Amelot was challenged to produce a better translation than D'Ablancourt. Amelot accepted the challenge, and in 1690 appeared, 14. "Tacite, avec des Notes

politiques et historiques; première Partie | la République des Provinces Unies et des