[241] Thus speaks Clarimond in his harangue against romances: "L'Angleterre n'a pas manque d'avoir aussi son Arcadie, laquelle ne nous a este montree que depuis peu par la traduction qui en a este faite. Je ne trouve point d'ordre la dedans et il y a beaucoup de choses qui ne me peuvent satisfaire.... Il est vrai que Sidney, etant mort jeune, a pu laisser son ouvrage imparfait." In his defence of romances, Philiris answers: "Quant a l'Arcadie de Sidney, apres avoir passe la mer pour nous venir voir, je suis marry que Clarimond la recoive avec un si mauvais compliment. S'il n'entend rien aux amours de Strephon et de Clajus, il faut qu'il s'en prenne a luy, non pas a l'autheur qui a rendu son livre l'un des plus beaux du monde. Il y a des discours d'amour et des discours d'estat si excellens et si delectables que je ne me lasserois jamais de les lire" ("Le Berger extravagant, ou, parmy des fantaisies amoureuses, l'on void les impertinences des romans et de la poesie," vol. iii., Paris, 1628, pp. 70 and 134). Sorel's work was translated into English: "The extravagant shepherd. The anti-romance, or the history of the shepherd Lysis," by John Davies, of Kidwelly; London, 1653, fol. The book has very curious plates; Davies in his preface is extremely hard upon Sidney, and heaps ridicule especially on the head of King Basilius. See _infra_, chap. vii. [242] Fouquet, however, was very fond of foreign books; the catalogue (dated 1665) of his library, drawn up after his committal, shows that he had a fairly large number of English books. He was the earliest known French possessor of a Shakespeare. The catalogue, it is true, reveals the fact that he preserved it "in his garret": "Livres in folio qui se trouvent dans le grenier: Comedies de Jazon [_i.e._, Ben Jonson] en anglois, 2 vol., London, 1640 _3l._ Idem, comedies angloises _10s._ Shakespeares comedies angloises _1l._ Fletcher commedies angloises _1l._" (MS. 9,438 francais, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.)