en, i.e. de ceux qui se mêlent des belles-lettres

Clarisse, Clarissa Harlcnve, by Samuel Richardson (1689 — 1761). Richardson is considered to be the inventor of the modern novel, that is of the combination of a story with a study of character, not couched in a dramatic form. De Vigny elsewhere says of Clarissa Harlowe " Clarisse est un ouvrage de stratégie, en quelque sorte. Vingt-quatre volumes employés à décrire le siège d'un cœur et sa prise. C'est digne de Vauban."

Page 39.

1. 1. Lovelace, whose name has become proverbial as that of an unprincipled libertine.