[227] This is an allusion to the society of the Hotel de Rambouillet and to the so-called _précieuses_. [228] It is generally supposed that here Isaac de Benserade (1612-1691) is meant, who was pre-eminently a court poet, and wrote a great deal of namby-pamby poetry, now deservedly forgotten. His “Character” appeared for the first time in the sixth edition of La Bruyèreʼs work, only a few months before his death, when he was seventy-eight years old. [229] Our author draws a distinction between gentlemen in town and at court, though he mentions those in town first. The silly novels he attacks were those of Gomberville (1600-1647), of La Calprenède (1610-1663), and above all those of Mdlle. de Scudéri (1607-1701), one of the _précieuses_ of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and author of the _Grand Cyrus_ (1650), _Clélie_ (1665), and of many other works. [230] It seems to have escaped all commentators of La Bruyère that in his time it was the fashion for the ladies at court to call a spade a spade with a vengeance, and to use very plain and realistic language, whilst the “city ladies” were not quite so daring; moreover, some of the streets, squares, etc., of Paris had very peculiar names, quite unfit for the mouth of any modest woman. [231] By “silly things,” our author means “plays on words” called in his time _équivoques_ or _turlupinades_. [232] Marcus Annæus Lucanus, a Latin poet, who died in the year 65, was put to death for his share in Pisoʼs conspiracy, at the early age of twenty-seven. [233] Claudus Claudianus (365-408), a Latin poet. [234] L. Annæus Seneca, a stoic philosopher, and tutor to Nero, was also put to death in the year 65 by order of his former pupil. [235] Hermagoras is, according to all commentators, Paul Perron, a learned Benedictine, and author of _LʼAntiquité des temps rétablie_, etc. The old English translations name, however, also Isaac Vossius (1618-1688), an able Dutch philologist, and a well-known French literary man, Urbain Chevreau (1613-1701). [236] In 1687, when this paragraph was first published, there was no longer an independent kingdom of Hungary, for three years before the crown had been declared hereditary in the House of Austria, which had ruled Bohemia as well since 1525. [237] These wars, interrupted by the peace of Nymeguen (1678), were going on whilst our author wrote. [238] Henri IV. (1553-1610), or _Henri le Grand_, according to La Bruyèreʼs own note, was not the son of the last of the Valois, Henri III. (1551-1589), but after the latterʼs death became heir to the French throne, because Henry IV.ʼs father, Antoine de Bourbon, was descended from the Count de Clermont, the fifth son of Louis IX. [239] Those names La Bruyère found in the _Histoire du Monde_ of Chevreau (see page 124, note 5); and nearly all of them are so wrongly spelt that it is almost hopeless to discover whom they meant.