The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Crosne, in France, 1636. Died at Paris, 1711. Aged 75.] One of the illustrious writers of his time. His labours went far to fix the character and purity of the French language, and his sharp criticisms have exercised ever since his day a salutary influence upon the literature of his country. He ridiculed with singular acuteness the false taste of his generation, and endeavoured to point out the true principles of composition. His “Art Poétique” is considered by many, as rivalling the “Ars Poëtica” of Horace. His humorous and heroic poem of “Le Lutrin,” written to illustrate his theory that an epic ought to have a slender groundwork, abounds in fanciful and sportive wit. He was the friend of Molière, Racine, and Lafontaine, and the great Condé was his patron. A generous and charitable man, an upholder of religion, but a sworn hater of hypocrisy. Constant in his friendships, and always ready to forgive injuries. [From a marble, by François Girardon, in the Louvre, a sculptor born at Troyes, in Champagne, 1630, and died 1715.]