La Fontaine (1621-95), of the same generation, wrote _Stories_ and _Select Fables_ (on the model of Aesop) in verse which rank as classics. The familiar children’s stories of Red Ridinghood, Bluebeard, The Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, etc., are from his work. He collected them from popular circulation and expanded them. Blaise Pascal (1623-62), a famous mathematician as well as writer on religion, gave the world two literary classics in his _Thoughts on Religion_ and _Provincial Letters_ (an attack on the Jesuits, though the author is a particularly pious Catholic). Montesquieu (1689-1755), a wealthy noble and eminent lawyer, is chiefly known for his _Spirit of the Laws_, a profound study of law from a humanitarian standpoint. Among his many other works his _Persian Letters_, a caustic criticism of contemporary life, long ranked as classic. Although few read it today the same must be said of the novel _Gil Blas_, by A. R. Lesage (1668-1747), a famous dramatist. It appeared in innumerable editions and was the model for later novelists. §5. CERVANTES AND THE NEW SPAIN Spain was retaken by the Spaniards from the Moors (whose whole immense literature was destroyed) in the Middle Ages, and for a time it enjoyed its share of the Renaissance. _Don Quixote_, by Cervantes (1547-1616), belongs to this period. It is a brilliant picture of the life of the time as well as a masterly satire of the exaggerations and eccentricities of Spanish romantic feeling. It should be regarded, like several of the works I have just noticed and others in the next section, as on the threshold between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The Renaissance is a first breath of Modernism. Lope de Vega (1562-1635) was a phenomenal Spanish playwright of the time who is now not much read. He is said to have written eighteen hundred plays (of which we have three hundred). He often wrote a play in a day, yet his construction and verse are of such quality that the Spaniards count him a classic. At the end of a long and very loose life he became a friar and assisted at the burning of heretics. Calderon (1601-81), the third great early Spanish writer, a poet and dramatist, ranks far higher than Vega, though even his best tragedy, _The Constant Prince_, is rarely read outside Spain. His name is one of the most honored in Spanish literature. Like Vega he became a priest in later life. With Calderon the short spell of fine writing in Spain ended and nothing of great distinction appeared until the latter end of the nineteenth century. §6. SHAKESPEARE AND THE ENGLISH REBIRTH