23. CHANSON. 20. en sa liberté, i.e. free from her pursuit. PARAPHRASE DU PSAUME CXLV. This is Psalm CXLVI in our English Bible. JEAN RACINE. 1639-1699. A dramatic genius of the highest order. But besides being a great dramatist he was a consummate master of language. The choruses in Esther and Athalie are excellent examples of the kind of lyric that the tendencies represented by Malherbe permitted. The extract here given is from Esther, Act III. The approach to the language of the Psalms is evident throughout. JEAN-BAPTISTE ROUSSEAU. 1670-1741. The chief representative of the serious lyric in the eighteenth century. This ode is a favorable example of the form which lyric utterance assumed in this philosophizing century and under the tradition of poetic dignity and propriety. 27. ODE À LA FORTUNE. 16. SYLLA (138-78 B.C.), the enemy of Marius and author of the bloody proscription against the adherents of his rival. 17. ALEXANDRE, Alexander the Great. 18. ATTILA, king of the Huns from 434 to 453, who ravaged southern and western Europe from 450 to 452 and was known as "the scourge of God." 28. 16. LE RETOUR, i.e. the adverse turn. ÉVARISTE-DÉSIRÉ DESFORGES DE PARNY. 1753-1814. He wrote mostly in a lighter and erotic vein. He had many admirers in his day who styled him the French Tibullus. His influence is perceptible in the style of Lamartine. Works: _Poésies érotiques_, 1778; _Opuscules poétiques_, 1779, enlarged in succeeding editions; _les Rosicroix_, 1807; _Oeuvres_, 5 vols., 1808; _Oeuvres choisies_, 1827. For reference : Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xv; _Portraits contemporains_, vol. iv; George Saintsbury, _Miscellaneous Essays_, London, 1892. NICOLAS GILBERT. 1751-1780. He has often been compared with Chatterton and has owed much of his fame to the unfounded legend that he was a child of genius brought to an untimely death by poverty and lack of recognition. His satires on the vices of his time enjoyed a temporary reputation, but his real legacy to posterity is the well-known lines here given. Works: _Oeuvres complètes_, 1788, and frequently thereafter. ROUGET DE L'ISLE. 1760-1836. Though he wrote much in both prose and verse, nothing of his lives except the _Marseillaise_, which has become the national song of France. He composed both words and music in the night of April 25, 1792, while he was an officer of engineers at Strassburg. The last stanza vas added later by another hand. The name, _la Marseillaise_, comes from the fact that it was introduced to Paris by the troops from Marseilles. Works: _Essais en vers et en prose_, 1796. For reference: J. Tiersot, _Rouget de l'Isle, son oeuvre, sa vie_, 1892. 32. LA MARSEILLAISE. 6. Beuillé, François-Claude Amour, marquis de (1739-1800), a devoted royalist, who planned the flight of Louis XVI. When the king was captured at Varennes he fled to England, where he died. MARIE-ANDRÉ CHÉNIER. 1762-1794.