Tandis qu’en pleurs je me consume Maudissant cet éloignement, Vous, n’aimiez que par coutume Caressiez un nouvel amant. Jamais légère girouette Au vent si tôt ne se vira. Nous verrons, bergère Rozette, Qui premier s’en repentira. Où sont tant de promesses saintes, Tant de pleurs versés en partant? Est-il vrai que ces tristes plaintes Sortissent d’un cœur inconstant? Dieux, que vous êtes mensongère! Maudit soit qui plus vous croira! Nous verrons, volage bergère, Qui premier s’en repentira. Celui qui a gagné ma place Ne vous peut aimer tant que moi; Et celle que j’aime vous passe De beauté, d’amour et de foi. Gardé bien votre amitié neuve; La mienne plus ne variera; Et puis nous verrons à l’épreuve Qui premier s’en repentira!’ Later, Desportes had other moods, more befitting his cloth, and under their influence he wrote devotional poems of considerable merit and somewhat feeble versions of the Psalms. Malherbe was quite justified in his criticism;--‘Your soup is better than your Psalms.’ For the table of the rich and sensual Abbot of Tiron, Bonport, Aurillac and other places was excellent, whilst the more edifying verses of his old age failed to acquire the bouquet of his wines. Mathurin Régnier was born at Chartres in 1573. His mother was the sister of Desportes, and Mathurin, in spite of his father’s protests, determined to follow in the footsteps of his uncle and to be a poet. So great was his natural talent that, notwithstanding his idleness and such indulgence in debauchery that his life was shortened by his excesses, he certainly succeeded. He holds a place unique in French literature. For he is, perhaps, the only French poet before the so-called classical period who has had the good fortune continuously to maintain his position. He attacked Malherbe, yet was praised by him. He was an ardent supporter of the Pléiade, that group of men who, with Ronsard, ‘the prince of poets,’ at their head, aimed at the reformation of the French language and literature by means of the study and imitation of ancient, classical models. His defence of the Ronsardising tradition secured him, later, the approval of the first Romantics. But he earned also the admiration of Boileau. And the praise of Boileau, who said that he was the French writer, before Molière, who best knew human nature, made his reputation safe during the eighteenth century.