[Sidenote: Belleau.] The position of best poet of the Pleiade--Ronsard, the greatest, having mingled a good deal of alloy with his gold--has been sometimes disputed for Remy Belleau[196]. It is certain that his 'Avril' holds with Du Bellay's 'Vanneur' and Ronsard's already-mentioned 'Quand vous serez bien vieille,' the rank of the best known and best liked poems of the school. Belleau, whose life was extremely uneventful, was born at Nogent-le-Rotrou in 1528, and was attached during nearly the whole of his life to the household of Remy de Lorraine, Marquis d'Elbeuf, and his son Charles, Duc d'Elbeuf, whose education he superintended and in whose house he spent his days. He died in 1577 and received an elaborate funeral, being carried to the grave by his brother stars, Ronsard and Baif, and by two of the younger disciples of the Pleiade, Desportes and Jamyn. Belleau was the chief purely descriptive poet and the chief poetical translator of the Pleiade. He began by a collection of poems entitled _Petites Inventions_ (short descriptive pieces), and by a translation of Anacreon. In 1565 a more ambitious work, the _Bergerie_, made its appearance. This is a mixture of prose and poetry, describing country life and its attractions. It is in this that the famous 'Avril' occurs, and there are other detached pieces not much inferior. In 1566 another rather curiously conceived work made its appearance, the _Amours et Nouveaux Echanges de Pierres Precieuses_. As a whole this is perhaps his best book. Besides these, Belleau also translated or paraphrased the _Phenomena_ of Aratus, _Ecclesiastes_, and the _Song of Solomon_. He deserves to rank with not a few poets who have often attained a fair secondary position in the art, and whose special faculty disposes them to patient and ingenious description in more or less poetical verse. The stately and at the same time flexible rhythm, the brilliant and varied vocabulary which the Pleiade used, lent themselves not ill to this task, and Belleau's talent, learning, and industry enabled him to give an unusually equable charm to his work. But he is altogether too occasional, too void of the higher poetical sentiment, and too limited in range, to be ranked with Ronsard or with Du Bellay. His peculiar quality of patient labour stood him in good stead in composing a Macaronic poem on the Huguenots, which is by no means without value. [Sidenote: Baif.]