[205] Ed. Hericault, Montaiglon, and Rothschild. 2 vols. Paris. 1858-1877. [206] _Ancien Theatre Francais_, vol. iv. [207] A good modern edition has appeared by Foerster. Heilbronn, 1882. [208] _Ancien Theatre Francais_, vol. vi. vii. CHAPTER VI. CALVIN AND AMYOT. [Sidenote: Prose Writers of the Renaissance.] It has been pointed out that Rabelais, in his capacity of representative author of the French Renaissance, exhibits all the characteristics of that Renaissance--its interest, half-enthusiastic and half-sceptical, in religious and philosophical questions, its devotion to ancient literature and learning, and the ardent zest with which it attacked at once the business and the pleasures of the world. The four most remarkable of the remaining prose authors of the century illustrate these characteristics as vividly but less universally. Montaigne indeed is almost as complete a representative of the entire character for the last half of the century as Rabelais is of the first. But even in him one note, the note of sceptical philosophy, is more dominant than any to be found in Rabelais. In the same way Calvin was the first, if not the most distinguished, of theologians who wrote modern French prose; Amyot the representative of erudition; and Brantome of that attention to mundane business and pleasure which produced so many admirable memoir-writers. Round each of the four, but especially round Amyot and Brantome, numerous figures, sometimes of hardly less magnitude, have to be grouped. Chronological reasons, and the convenience of subdividing the subject, make it, however, advisable to take Calvin and Amyot first, leaving the authors of the _Essais_ and the _Dames Galantes_ with their train for another chapter. [Sidenote: Calvin.]