[77] In the original _il feint_, the Latin _fingit_, he shapes, imagines. [78] Ronsard (1524-1585), the chief of the “Pleiad” or constellation of seven authors, was the most celebrated poet of his time, and the author of the _Franciade_. [79] Clément Marot (1495-1544), the favourite poet of Francis I., was born twenty-nine years before Ronsard, who lived about forty years longer than Marot. [80] Rémy Belleau (1528-1577), Jodelle (1532-1573), and du Bartas (1544-1590), were all poets of the school of Ronsard and belonging to the “Pleiad.” Du Bartasʼs chief work has been translated into English by “silver-tongued” Joshua Sylvester (1563-1618), under the title of “The Divine Week and Works;” and Spenser speaks of “his heavenly muse,” and of his filling “the world with never-dying fame.” [81] Honorat de Bueil, Marquis de Racan (1589-1670), the favourite pupil of Malherbe, is chiefly known by his pastoral dialogue, _Les Bergeries_. La Bruyère praises Malherbe and Racan for their pure style, but the fabulist Jean de la Fontaine says of them:— “Malherbe avec Racan parmi le chœur des anges, Là-haut de lʼEternel célébrant les louanges Ont emporté leur lyre.” [82] François Rabelais (1459-1553), author of the _Chroniques de Gargantua et de Pantagruel_. [83] La Bruyère writes “Montagne,” and so it is even now pronounced. Montaigneʼs (1533-1592) “Essays” are known everywhere. [84] The author who “thinks too little” is said to have been the Port-Royalist, Pierre Nicole (1625-1695), though some imagine Balzac was meant; the author who thought “with too much subtlety” seems to have been Father Malebranche (1638-1715), who attacked Montaigne in his _Recherche de la Vérité_ (1674). [85] Jacques Amyot (1513-1593), the translator of Plutarch. Nicolas Coëffeteau (1574-1623), bishop of Marseille, is best known by his translation of the Roman historian, Florus. [86] The letters H. G. stand for _Hermes Galant_, “Hermes” being the Greek for Mercury, and there existing since 1672 a kind of monthly review, called the _Mercure Galant_, edited by Donneau de Visé, Thomas Corneille, and Fontenelle, and printing some news from the court and the army, a few literary articles, and as many advertisements as possible. Since 1677 its title changed to _Mercure de France_. [87] Boileau, La Fontaine, and Saint Evremond were, like La Bruyère, no lovers of the opera. [88] The Abbé Perrin and his brother-in-law, the Marquis de Sourdéac, the first regular directors of opera in France, ruined themselves in less than three years through their expensive decorations and machinery. In 1672 Lulli and his son-in-law Francine obtained permission to manage another opera-house, but spent far less money on decorations than their predecessors had done. Our author calls Lulli “Amphion,” a Greek musician who is said to have built Thebes by the music of his lute.