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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	add_v	part_n	word_n	2,755	5	4.4590	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90369	The history of the French Academy, erected at Paris by the late famous Cardinal de Richelieu, and consisting of the most refined wits of that nation. Wherein is set down its original and establishment, its statutes, daies, places, and manner of assemblies, &c. With the names of its members, a character of their persons, and a catalogue of their works. / Written in French, by Mr. Paul Pellison, counseller and secretary of the King of France.; Relation contenant l'histoire de l'Académie française. English	Pellisson-Fontanier, Paul, 1624-1693.; Some, Henry.	1657 (1657)	Wing P1110; Thomason E1595_1; ESTC R203126	122,702	275

lofty yea mean and the lowest kind of speech That there be observed also the accents upon long syllables That they mark also the differences of é when open and when close for the pronuntiation That they keep themselves to the receiv'd orthography not to molest the common reading nor hinder but that Books which have been printed formerly may be read with facility That they should nevertheless endeavour to take away all superfluities that may be cut off without any harm That in the second part all simple words or others be set down without any distinction in an alphabetical Order with a reference only to the Page of the great Dictionary where they are explained and where also may be marked also all the words and phrases out of use with their explication for the understanding of old Books where they are found with this notice That these words or phrases belong to the Language but must not be used any more That in conclusion for the good of Strangers one may yet if one will add a third part only of simple Latine words with a reference to the pages of the great Dictionary where they may explain the French words That they may lest the volume be too big leave out of the Dictionary all proper names of Seas Rivers Cities Mountains which are alike in all Languages as also privat terms which enter not into common traffick and are only invented for the necessity of Trades and Professions leaving to those that have a mind to it the liberty to make distinct Dictionaries for the profit of those that addict themselves to those particular Knowledges This was the Project of the Dictionary which Monsieur Chapelain made and was approved of by the Academie 'T is true that some time after Monsieur Silhon who was then Director propounded whether it would not be better that they might make an end of it quickly to follow the Common Dictionaries only adding therto what they should judg meet But I do not find that this Proposition which was then put off to the next Assembly was either received or so much as taken into consideration again 'T is true too they have not punctually observ'd whatever is in this Project as may be seen in that which respects the quotations Yet 't was resolv'd at first to follow the Project in that and they began a Catalogue of the best reputed Books in our Tongue to which they at several times added more according as they thought good For Prose Amiot Montagne du Vair Desportes Charron Bertaud Marion de la Guesle Pibrac d'Espeisses Arnauld le Catholicon d'Espagne The memoires of Queen Margaret Coiffeteau du Perron de Sales Bishop of Geneva d'Vrfé de Molieres Malherbe du Plessis Mornay what ever is extant of Monsieur Baudin's and of Monsieur du Chastelet two Academiciens that were lately dead Cardinal d'Ossat de la Nouë de Dammartin de Refuge Audiguier to which doubtlesse they would have added others as Bodin and Steven Pasquier which deserved not to be forgotten For verse they put into the Catalogue Marot S. Gelais Ronsard du Bellay Belleau du Bartas Desportes Bertaud Cardinal Perron Garnier Regnier Malherbe Deslingendes Motin Touvant Monfuron Theophile Passerat Rapin Sainte Marthe The Book-seller to the Academy was charged to bring to the Director a note of all the principal Authors of the Tongue and of their several works But a while after the Acadamie began to apprehend the pains and the length of the citations and having consulted many times about it 't was resolved by the advice even of M. Chapelain who was the first that put them upon these thoughts not to set down the Authorities in the Dictionarie unless in the making of it they thought good for phrases that were dubious to cite some approved Author that had used them 'T was also resolv'd for the furthering of this work that the Cardinall should be given to understand that it would be very fit to choose out of the Company one or two persons that should wholly apply themselves to it and have the principall charge of it Monsieur de Boisrobert was desired to mention it and to propose to him M. de Vaugelas and M. Faret as fittest for this employment and best able to discharge it worthily if they were acquitted from the cares of their fortune and could bestow their whole time upon it The Cardinall as I find by the answer that M. de Boisrobert returned to the Academie gave no answer to this propos tion whether 't were that he did not like it or that his thoughts were taken up with something else In the mean time there was not any one in the Academie that offered himself voluntarily to take upon him the performance of this work every one had his own affaires and his own private thoughts from which he was not willing to be taken off Thus this design for which they even now exprest so much zeal began to cool and for eight or ten months there was no talk of the Dictionary the Academy all this while amusing it self about other things which I shall tell you o● by and by At ●ast the Cardinal having often complained that they did nothing that was profitable to the Publick and being vexed at it so far as to say that he would abandon them these Gentlemen resolved to make once more the same Proposition to him M. de Boisrobert then being thereto exhorted by all the Academiciens and in particular by Monsieur Chapelain and some others of his most familiar friends acquainted the Cardinal that the only means speedily to finish the Dictionary was to give the principal charge of it to M. de Vaugelàs and for this end to get re-establisht upon him by the King a Pension of two thousand Livres which was no longer paid him● extolling highly his abilities as to this business his noble birth his merit which has a long time been known to the whole Court The Cardinal at that time received favourably this overture and answered That he would if need were give the Pension out of his own purse But he desir'd to see after what manner M. de Vaugelas would proceed in it They presented him the two Projects he liked well the larger of which I related to you almost all Reg. June ult 1639. The Pension of 2000 Livres was re-establisht upon M. de Vaugelas who went to thank the Cardinal for it and as he had a very ready wit and very polite through long practice at Court and in the choisest company 't was then that he made that happy reply which questionlesse you have heard of For they say that the Cardinal seeing him come into his chamber arose with that sweet and pleasant Majesty which almost alwaies accompanied him and coming towards him Well Monsieur saith he you will not forget I hope in your Dictionary the word Pension Whereupon Monsieur de Vaugelas making a low reverence to him answered No my Lord and lesse that of

behind that he might view them and sent them back some time after signed with his own hand and countersigned by Charpentier his Secretary and sealed with his armes En placard But I must not forget to tell you that this was after that he had caused one thing onely in it to be changed which would have seemed to be too much to his advantage and to tax him of a little vanity The fifth Article of the Statutes was in substance That every Academicien should promise to reverence the vertue memory of my Lord their Protectour He desired that this article should be taken away and the Company ordered it should be so in obedience to his Eminence but that there should be mention of it made in the Registers I should now questionles be very tedious if I should go about to relate to you exactly how much time paines was requisite on the other side to get these Letters Patens ratifyed in Parliament Reg. January 19. and Febuary 5. 1635. After that they were signed according to order by Monsieur Delomenie Secretary of state who was then called Monsieur de Villeauclair and is at present Monsieur the Count of Brienne with whom they found no difficulty they were delivered into the hand of Monsieur Hennequin of Bernay Counsellor in the great Chamber to make a report of them They sent severall deputies as well to him as to the Kings Advocates and to Monsieur the chiefe President le Jay Reg. March 12. March 19. April 16. 1635. but all were to no purpose And although to give the more force to their Sollicitations after the two first they resolved to make no more in the name of the Company but of the Cardinall who liked well it should be so and though in his name Messieurs Desmarests Reg. July 23. 30. 1635 de Bautru de Boisrobert had been to waite upon the Chiefe President he gave them but little hopes of obtaining what they desired This was the reason why the Cardinall upon the Complaint that was made to him of it by Monsieur de Boisrobert in behalf of the Company wrote to the Chief President the following Letter SIR I doe not take pen in hand to represent unto you the merit of those persons which compose the FRENCH ACADEMIE lately established in Paris because the most part of them having the honour to be known to you I think you cannot be ignorant of it but to conjure you that you would for this reason and for the affection which I beare to them in generall and in particular contribute the Power you have in your Parliament for the confirming those priviledges which it has pleas'd h s Majesty to grant them at my humble desire being profitable and necessary to the publike and having quite another designe then that which you have hitherto been made believe I do not doubt but you will in this occasion bring for their contentment all the facility which you can possibly and which they have reason to promise to themselves upon my recommendation to you assuring you that besides the obligation which these Gentlemen will have to you for this favour which you will shew them in this affaire I shall partake of their resentment to witnesse to you mine own also when ever I shall have opportunity to do you service and to let you know by my actions that I am December 1635. SIR Your most affectionate servant LE CARD DE RICHELIEU A Copie of this Letter was read in the Academie and because the Attourney Generall exprest a desire of it they obtained further of the King three Letters under the Privy Seale One for him and the Advocates Generall another for the Parliament and the third for the chief President le Jay The Attorney Generall at that time was that great man to whom I am so infinitely obliged M. Molé now keeper of the Seales of France These Letters were all written to the same tenour and purpose and it will be sufficient to relate to you one of them that you may know the rest BY THE KING TRVSTY AND WEL-BELOVED We have heretofore by our Letters Patents in forme of an Edict in January last willed and ordained that there should be an establishment of a FRENCH ACADEMIE in our good Citty of Paris in the which there being only persons of great worth and learning it cannot be but very advantageous to the publike and to the reputation of France FOR THESE CAUSES we will and command that you proceed to the registring of the aforesaid Letters according to their forme and tenour and that you permit the said Companie to enjoy the priviledges wherewith we have endowed them without giving thereto any delay restriction or difficulty hereof faile yee not FOR such is our pleasure GIVEN at S. Germain en Lay the 30th day of December 1635. Signed LEWIS and underneath DELOMENIE and on the backside To our trusty welbeloved Councellors holding our Court of Parliament at Paris Moreover the Cardinal signified to the Atturney General who came to visit him at Conflans that he absolutely desired this ratification and that having set his seale to the Statutes of the Academie he judged them worthy the priviledges that were granted to them He also let the cheife President know that for feare there should yet be delayes and obstacles in this affaire he should cause the Letters to be presented and ratified in the grand Councell They continued the sollicitings in his name and those which did it said from him that h had forbidden the Academie to trouble it selfe any more about it being resolved it should receive this favour only from himselfe At length the Atturney Generall gave his favourable determination and Monsieur Savarre Counsellor in the great Chamber in whose hands the Letters were professed also his great willingnesse adding withall That he did not believe since he was of the Parliament he had received a greater honour then the contributing something to the establishment of the Academie Neverthelesse he had not this satisfaction for he fell sick some few daies after and whether 't were that there were yet some other obstacles or that his sicknesse which was long and of which he died at last was the cause of it so if was that the Letters returned into the hands of Monsieur de Bernay were not ratified till a year after or more the 10th of July 1637. with this clause Provided that those of the Assembly Academie take no cognizance but only of the ornament embellishment augmentation of the French Tongue and of the books that shall be made by themselves and by others that shall desire it The Academie being assembled three daies after wou'd have deputed some to go thank the Cardinal but he sent them word by Monsieur de Boisrobert that he desired it not and that they should go only to thanke Monsieur de Bernay the reporter Monsieur the Atturney Generall and Monsieur the chief Peresident which was done by

the Stage 'T was the onely meanes to get accesse to the Grandees and to be favoured by the prime Minister of State who scarce liked any of the divertisments of the Court but that 'T will not be amisse ere I passe farther to let you know how much he was addicted to it He was not only present with much delight at all new Comedies but took pleasure also to conferr with the poets to see their design in its birth and to furnish them himself with plots And if he knew any good wit that of himself had no great inclination to travaile in this kind He would insensibly engage him in it with all manner of care and good usage Thus seeing that Monsieur Desmarests was very averse from it he desired he would at least invent a plot for a Comedie which he would get somebody else he said to make up Monsieur Desmarests brought him four presently after That of Aspasiae which was one of them pleased him infinitly but after he had given him a thousand Commendations he added That he onely that was able to invent it would be able to handle it worthily And obliged Monsieur Desmarests to make him the like every year And when he thought to excuse himself with being employ'd about his Heroique Poem of Clovis of which he had already made two books it ayming at the glory of France and even of the Cardinall himself the Cardinall answered that he had rather enjoy the fruits of his Poetry as much as 't was possible and that believing he should not live to see the end of so long a work he conjur'd him for his sake to busy himself in making Playes wherewith he might refresh himself with pleasure from the wearinesse of greater affaires By this meanes he got him to compose the inimitable Comedy Des Visionaeires or the Fanaricks the Tragicomedie of Scipio that of Roxana Mirame and Europa 'T is true indeed that part of the plot and humors of Mirame were his own ' and hence 't was that he exprest a Fatherly tendernesse of this piece the representation whereof stood him in two or three thousand crowns and for which he caus'd that great Hall of his Palace to be built which still serves for these Shews And no question but he himself invented the plots of the three other Comedies namely The Tuilleries The blind man of Smyrna and The Grand Pastorall In this last there were at least five hundred verses of his own making but it was not printed as the other two were the reason was this When he had a design to publish it he desired that Monsieur Chapelain should reveiw it and make exact observations upon it These observations were brought to him by Monsieur de Boisrobert and though they were written with very much discretion and respect so vext and nettled him whether for their number or for the knowledge they gave him of his faults that before he had read them through he tore them in pieces But the night following as he was in bed and all the house asleep having considered of the Choler he had betray'd he did a thing incomparably more to be esteemed then the best Comedie in the world 't was that he yeilded himself to reason for he commanded the torn peices of this paper to be gather'd up and layd together again and after he had read it from one end to the other and made deep reflexion upon it he sent to have Monsieur de Boisrobert waked to tell him that he preceived well that the Gentlemen of the Academie understood these matters better then he and he must talk no more of having this printed He caused to be made the verses of those pieces which were then called The pieces of the five Authors by five severall persons distributing to each an Act and by this meanes finishing a Comedie in one month These five persons were M. de Boisrobert Corneille Colletet de l'Estoille de Rotrou on whom besides the Ordinary pension he gave them he bestowed considerable gratuities when they writt nobly according to his minde Thus M. Colletet has assur'd me that when he carryed to him The Monologue of the Tuilleries he stopt particularly upon two verses of the description of the square Fish-pond at this passage La cane s'humecter de la bourbe de l'eau D'une voix enrovèe d'un battement d'aisle Animer le canard qui languit auprés d'elle And that after he had heard all the rest he gave him with his own hand fifty pistoles with these obliging words That 't was onely for these two verses which he found so excellent and that the King himself was not rich enough to reward him for all the rest M. Colletet told me one thing more which was very pleasant In that passage which I related to you just now insteed of La cane sohumecter de la bourbe de l'eau the Cardinall would perswade him to put in barbotter dans la bourbe de l'eau He delired to be excused as conceiving that word too low and not content with what he then said when he was returned to his lodging he wrote a Letter to him about it perhaps that he might speak of it with the more freedome The Cardinall had newly read it when there came in some of his Courtiers who complementing to him about some of his Majesties happy successes in the wars told him That nothing was able to withstand his Eminence You 'r deceived answers he laughing for I find even here in Paris those that withstand me And when they asked him who those were that durst be so audacious Colletet sayes he for having quarrel'd with me yesterday about a word he will not yeild it but has even now written me a large Letter here about it He made afterwards those Comedies of the five Authous be acted before the King and the whole Court the Stage being very magnificently adorned These Gentlemen had a seat by themselves in one of the most convenient places they even named them somtimes with praise as at the acting of the Tuilleries in a Prologue made in prose where among other things the invention of the plot was attributed to M. Chapelain who yet did onely mend it in some places but the Cardinall desired him to send him his name in this occasion adding that in recompence he would lend him his purse in any other It was about this time that M. Corneille who was looked upon till then as one of the chiefest in that kind of writing having let his Cid be acted was placed at least in the common opinion infinitly above all others 'T is hardly imaginable with what opprobation this piece was received by the Court and by the publique They were never weary with seeing it they talked of nothing else in Company every body could say some part of it by heart they made their Children learn it and in many places of France it went for a proverb to say T is as brave as the Cid It

in general of the justness of its parts and purity of its Language In reading these works the Academy very often gave decisions upon the Language of which its Registers are full it did the like also many times upon the mere proposal of some one Academicien and if at Court as it often happens a word had been the subject of some long dispute they seldome failed to speak of it in the Assembly Such was for instance that merry contest that arose at Rambouillet Hostel whether one should say Muscardins or Muscadins which was decided by the Academy in favour of the last which I the rather mention Reg. Feb. 1. 1638. because it serves to explain a piece of raillerie made by Monsieur de Voiture against them that will have it to be Muscardins which was never printed Au siecle des vieux Palardins Soit Courtisans soit Citardins Femmes de Cour ou Citardines Prononsoient troûjours Muscardins Et Balardins et Balard nes Mesme l'on dit qu'en ce temps là Chacun disoit rose muscarde J'en dirois bien plus que cela Mais par mafoy je suis malarde Et mesme en ce momeut voila Qu'l'on m'apporte une panarde So in the year 1651. Monsieur Naud● consulted this Company about the word Rabougri which signifies properly a Plant that is not come to its perfection and just bignesse in which sense we read in the old Statutes Des arbres rabougris He made use of it in a trial which he had in Parlement upon an answer made him by two of these Gentlemen who had asked the opinion of the whole Body concerning it and he printed their Letters at the end of a little Book which he then publisht against his adversaries Strangers also amongst whom our Tongue is insensibly spread have sometimes acknowledged the authority of the Academy in the like occasions Thus in the year 1652 it was obliged to pronounce upon a wager of consequence which had been laid in Holland concerning the word Temperature but as it gave these decisions only by the by I think I ought not to stay any longer upon them SOMETIMES also when the Academy had nothing else to do Reg. Jaly 16. 1638. they read and examined some French Book and to this purpose 't was ordered that there should be alwaies some Book in the place of the Assembly I took delight to read in the Registers the examination of Malherbe's Stanza's upon the Kings going to Limosin for if there be any thing that makes appear that which is so commonly said that his verses were never finished certainly 't is this reading of them There is scarce one Stanza wherein without being too severe a Critick one meets not with one or more things which one could wish were changed if 't were possible without destroying that rare sense that marvellous elegance and that inimitable smoothness of the verses which is found throughout those excellent works I said without being too severe a Critick for to give you some Examples of them in that first Stanza O Dieu dont les bontez de nos larmes touchées On t aux vaines fureurs les armes arrachées Et rangé l'innocence aux pieds de la raison Puisqa ' a rien d'imparfait ta louange n' aspire Acheue ton ouvrage au bien de cet Empire Et nous rends l'embonpoint comme la guerison These Gentlemen observ'd well Reg. April 19. 1638. that La bontè touchée de nos larmes was better then Les bontez that the third verse Et rangé l'innocence aux pieds de la raison was not good since that in the fourth verse Ta loüange n' aspire à rien d'imparfait was not good French but they did not observe as a fault what he sayes at the end Et nom rend embonpoint comme la guerison though to look a little more narrowly into it methinkes and in our Ordinary discourse a man may say well enough in our Language rendre la santé and rendre la vie but not rendre la guerison But as for that verse Et range l'innocence aux pieds de la raison The Academie was not at all satisfied with it and t is true there cannot be picked out of it any reasonable sense but it proceeds from a fault in the printing which has been committed in all the Editions that ever I saw of Malherbes workes and which no man that I know of has hitherto perceived insteed of l'innocence it should be l'insolence I thought of it first by Conjecture but I now make no question of it since I saw the verse printed after this manner in three Collections of French Poems which are those of 1615 1621 1627. Ranger l'insolence aux pieds de la raison is not onely good sense but also very neat and very poeticall There is one Stanza which is the 16. upon which I do not find any thing in the Registers unlesse that it was admired by every one and that there was no fault found with it Quand un Roy faineant la vergogne des Princes Laissant à ses flateurs le soin de ses Provinces Entre les voluptez indignement s' endort Quoy que l'on dissimule on n' en fa●t d'estime Et si la verité se peut dire sans crime C ' est avecque plaisir qu' on survit à sa mort Yet in this Stanza certainly admirable he has the word vergogne which many now a dayes would be very loath to use and which the meanest judges would not faile to condemn I might add many other things like these did not I fear to be too long But there are two passages which I think it not amisse to mention because the Academie Reg. April 26. 1638. observed that in them Malherbe himself fell short of his own rules The first is in the third Stanza Certes quinconque a vû pleuvoir dessus nos testes Les funestes éclats des plus grands tempestes Qu' exciterent jamais deux contraires partis Et n' en voit aujourd'huy nulle marque paroistre En ce miracle seul il peut asses connoistre Quelle force a la main qui nous a garantis Malherbe was of opinion that Stanza's of six ought to have a rest at the end of the third verse And here yet he goes to the end of the fourth e're he rests but you will not wonder at it when you know what I believe the Academie it self at that time was ignorant of and which I learn't very lately out of some notes that Monsieur de Racan gave me of the life of that excellent Poet. 'T is that he made these Stanzas and many other of his peices before that he imposed this law upon himself And hence it is that there are some of his workes where it is not exactly observed as for example in the Consolation to Caritée in this Stanza Pourquoy done si peu Sagement Dèmentant

a quite peculiar manner with an ingenious livelynesse Although he never printed any thing yet was he in great repute not only in France but also in forrein Countrys for the excellency of his wit the Academy of the Humor●sts at Rome sent him Letters whereby they made him one of their Academy His works were published after his death in one Volume which was received by the pub●icke with so much approbation that they were forced to make two Editions of it in six Months His Prose is more correct and exact it has a certain Air of gallantry which is not found any where else and something so naturall and so exact both together that the reading thereof is infinitely taking His Verses perhaps are no lesse curious although more neglected He many times slighted Rules but like a Master as a man that thought himself far above them and that scorned to bind himself to observe them That which is most to be commended in all his writings is that they are not Copies but Originals and that by reading the ancients and the moderns Cicero Terence Ariosto Marot and many others he made a certain new Character wherein he imitated no man and scarce any man can imitate him He had written the beginning of a Romance in prose which he called Alcidalis the subject whereof was given him by Madame the Marques of Montausieur who was then Mademoiselle de Rambouïllet Julie d'Angenes But since his death this beginning having fallen into the hands of this Lady was never seen and perhaps never shall To conclude 't was he that brought again into the fashion in our age the Rondeaux or sonnets that end as they begin which have bin quite out of use ever since Marot's time I have amongst my papers one thing which justifies what I now said T is a Letter of his which was never printed written to Monsieur de la Jonquiere Father to Monsieur de Paillerols my Cousin 'T is dated January 8. 1638. and has this Postscript I doubt whether you know what Rondeaux are I have of late made three or four of them which have put the Witts in the humor of making them 'T is a kind of writing which is proper for jeasting and raillerie I know not whether you are grown more grave now then you were when you were a Boy I for my part am alwayes in the same humor I was in when we stole the drake If then you love my follies read them but by no meanes let the Ladyes see them whose hands I kisse Rondeau Cinq ou six fois Cette nuit en dormant c. Ou vous savez tromper bien finement c. MONSIEUR SIRMOND IOHN SIRMOND was a native of Rion in Auvergne of a good familie of the Robe he was nephew to Father Sirmond the Jesuite Confessor to K. Lewis 13. and one of the most knowing men of our age He came to Court and by the favour of Cardinal de Richelieu who esteemed him one of the best writters in those daies was made Historiographer to the King with a pension of 1200. crowns He wrote divers pieces for the Cardinall on the affairs of the times but almost all of them under assumed names The Abbot of S. Germain who was the writer one the adverse part treats him extreme ill in the Tract which he called The Chimerique Embassadour He made an answer to it which is in the Collection of Monsieur du Chastelet The Abbot of S. Germain replyed and handled him yet more injuriously whereby he was obliged to write again in his own defence But Card. de Richelieu and King Lewis 13. dyed in the interim and he could never obtain under the Regency a priviledge to print this Book Hereat he was very much troubled and seeing besides that his Enemie was upon his return to Court and that favour would be no longer on his side he retired into Auvergne where he dyed being about threescore yeats Old He left a Son who as they say will print some of his works particularly his Latine verses His Prose shews that he had an excellent Genius for Eloquence his Style is strong and Mascu ine and wants no adornment The pieces which I have seen of his are these whereof the greatest pa t are in the Collect●on of Monsieur du Chastelet The Pourtraicture of the King made of the times of the Constable of Luynes The tr●ck of State of K. Lewis 13. writ in favour of Cardinall de Richelieu The Letter decifred An Advertisement to the Provinces by the Sieur de Cleonville which I have heard accounted his Master-piece L' Homme du Pape and du Roy in answer to the Count de la Rocque Spanish Embassador at Venice who had written a Book against France under the name of Zambeccari The Chimera defeated by Sulpice de Mandrini Sieur de Gazonval The Relation of the Peace of Querasque taken out of a Treatise written by Monsieur Servien He hath made also some Latin verses as I said and that Epigram against Mamurra wherein this Parasite is called Pamphagus is his I will add here by way of acknowlegment that one of his Books was one of the first things that made me relish our Language I was but newly come from Colledge when I met with I know not how many Romances and other new pieces which though I was very young and a mere child I could not endure but run back to my Tully and Terence which I found more rationall At last there came to my hands almost at the same time four Books which were The eight Orations of Tully The trick of State of Monsieur Sirmond The fourth Volume of the Letters of M. de Balzac which were wholly printed and The Memoires of Queen Margaret which I read over twice from the beginning to the end in one and the same night After that I began not onely no longer to contemn the French Language but even passionatly to love it to study it with some care and to believe as I do still even to this day that with a Genius some Time and Pains a man may render it capable of all things MONSIEUR DE COLOMBY FRANCIS DE CAVVIGNY Sieur DE COLOMBY was of Caen in Normandy a kinsman to Malherbe whose Disciple and follower he was He was also of kinne to Monsieur Morant Treasurer de l'Espargne who procured him a pension and saw it paid him He had an office at Court which never any had before or since him for he was Styled Orator to the King in affairs of State and 't was upon this account that he received 1200. crowns a year he received also other favours from the Court and was indeed proud that they were thought to be much greater then they were Towards his latter end he took upon him a religious habit but he was no Priest He dyed at the age of threescore years He was of a great stature very strong of an ambitious humor and resolute in all his actions He