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

[Born in Paris, 1669. Died at Brussels, 1741. Aged 72.] A lyric poet of great celebrity in France, but many of his compositions defaced by scurrility and indecency. He was the son of a shoemaker, but he received a good education, and at an early age, gave sign of his poetic genius. In his nineteenth year, appointed page to the French ambassador at the court of Denmark; and subsequently attached as Secretary to the Embassy in England. In 1712, he fell into disfavour, and was banished from France for writing libellous verses, which, to the last moment of his life, he declared were the production of some enemy, who had designed his ruin. Retiring to Vienna, he found favour with Prince Eugene. The odes of Jean Baptiste Rousseau are not surpassed, if they are equalled, in the French language; his lyrics are elegant and harmonious, and his epigrammatic skill is perfect. His later productions, however, exhibit a lamentable falling off from the early excellence by which he won his fame. [In marble, by Caffieri. No date.]