donna ses sentiments sur le Cid, In

L 30. reprenant^ noticing.

L 34^ V hôtel de Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marchionei^s de Rambouillet, used to receive at her house (1600 — 1665) ^ ^^^ ^stocracy of French rank and genius. A literary coterie was thus formed which assumed the rather ambitions position of dedding en dernier ressort on ail topics connected with taste. Madame de Rambouillet*s friends were known by the epithet of Précieux and Précieuses^ and brought down upon themselves the witty attacks of Molière.

P. 10, 1. I. Vincent Voiture (1598 — 1648), chiefly known by hîs letters. '' Though much too laboured and affected," says Mr Hallam, **they are evidently the original type of the French epistolary school.*'

1. ao« don Bertrand.,,^ Play of Thomas Corneille, performed in

Le Geôlier.,, Another play of Thomas Corneille, performed in 1657.