It is not necessary to enter at length on the subject of his works. He possessed to a high degree the faculty of wit; generally speaking wit simply, not humour[95]: point the most acute, expressions the most happy, embody and carry home his meaning. He is not as elegant as Horace, nor as bitter nor as elevated as Juvenal: he indeed resembles the former more than the latter; but he has vivacity and truth, and a high tone of moral and critical feeling, which give strength to his epigrams; his principal defect being the want of a playful fancy, which caused a sort of aridity to be spread over his happiest sallies. He laboured to polish his verses diligently; and their apparent ease results from the justness of taste that taught him to retrench every superfluity of expression. The "Lutrin" rises superior to his other productions; and in these days, and for posterity, his fame will chiefly rest upon that poem.
[78]The place of his birth and the date have been disputed. Critics have decided on the farts above given. The doubt partly originated in Boileau himself. Louis XIV. one day asked him his age; he replied, "I came into the world a year before your majesty, that I might announce the glories of your reign." The reply pleased the king, and was applauded by the courtiers; nor did Boileau err much in the fact; for, being born as late in the year as December, he was scarcely more than a year older than the king, though the date of that monarch's birth was 1638.
Que si quelqu'un, mes Vers, alors vous importune,
Pour savoir mes parents, ma vie, et ma fortune,
Contez lui qu'allié d'assez hauts magistrats,
Fils d'un greffier, né d'ayeux avocats,
Des le berceau perdant une forte jeune mère,
Réduit seize ans après à pleurer mon vieux père,
J'allai d'un pas hardi, par moi-mème guidé,
Et de mon seul génie en marchant seconde,
Studieux amateur de Perse et d'Horace,
Assez pres de Regnier m'asseoir sur le Parnasse.—Epître X.
La famille en pâlit, et vit en frémissant,
Dans la poudre du greffier un poète naissant.—Epître V.
[80]The duc de Montauzier married Julie d'Angennes, demoiselle de Rambouillet—the deity of the clique which established the system of factitious gallantry which Molière and Boileau ridiculed and exploded. Of course the duke was inimically inclined; but time softened the exasperation, and Boileau, by apt flattery in his epistle to Racine, completed the change. Soon after the publication of this epistle, the peer and poet met in the galleries of Versailles, and exchanged compliments; the duke took the satirist home to dine with him, and was his friend ever after.
[81]The following is a specimen of the poetry of the "Pucelle,"—the Maid of Orleans is addressing the king:—
"O! grand prince, que grand des cette heure j'appelle,
Il est vrai, le respect sert de bride à mon zèle:
Mais ton illustre aspect me redouble le cœur,
Et me le redoublant, me redouble la peur.
A ton illustre aspect mon cœur se sollicite,
Et grimpant contre mont, la dure terre quitte.
O! que n'ai-je le ton désormais assez fort
Pour aspirer à toi, sans te faire de tort.
Pour toi puissé-je avoir une mortelle pointe
Vers où l'épaule gauche à la gorge est conjointe,
Que le coup brisât l'os, et fit pleûvoir le sang
De la temple, du dos, de l'épaule, et du flanc."
[82]Voltaire, in his "Mémoire sur la Satire," severely censures Boileau. Voltaire was peculiarly sensitive to satire, while he never spared it in his turn; he cherished a sort of reserve in his mind, that made it venial in him to attack with virulence, while no one was to censure him without the most cutting return. This fact, however, does not alter his argument. It is a difficult question. It may be said that it is impossible but that bad books should be criticised by contemporary writers, while all men of generous and liberal natures will be averse to undertaking the office of butcher themselves.
[83]The pensions were granted in 1663. Chapelain selected the names; but we can hardly believe that he wrote the list, such as it has come down to us, wherein the praise lavished on himself is ridiculous enough: The occasion of the pension is appended to the name: this is a specimen of some among them:—