WHAT OCCURRED IN FRANCE DURING MME DE
SÉVIGNÉ'S LIFETIME.
1626. Mme de Sëvignë bom {^tie Marie de Rabutin-Chantal).
1627. Birth of Bossuet ; death of de Sëvigné's father. 1629. Comte de Grignan bom. Richelieu prime minister.
1632. Birth of Bourdaloue and Fléchier, preachers.
1633. Vauban, " father of fortifications," bom.
1634. Birth of Mme de la Fayette the novelist, and of Mascaron the
preacher.
1635. Mme de Maintenon bom. The Hôtel de Rambouillet atits height.
War against Spain.
1635. French Academy founded.
1636. Birth of the satirist Boileau. Corneille*s Le Cid performed.
1637. Descartes' Discours de la méthode.
1638. Birth of the " Sun King," Louis XIV.
1639. Jean Racine bom.
1640. Comeille*s Horace and Cinna,
1643. Death of Louis XIII. Comeille*s Polyeucte and Menteur.
1644. Marriage of Mme de Se vigne to the Marquis Henri de Se vigne.
1645. Birth of La Brayère (?).
1646. Birth of Françoise Marie de Sévignë (Mme de Grignan) and of the
great Condë.
1648. Treaty of Westphalia. Birth of Charles de Sévignë and death of Voiture the poet. War of the Fronde.
1650. Descai^es and Vaugelas die. The controversy between Jesuits
and Jansenists begins.
1651. Fënelon bom. Marquis de Sëvignë killed in a duel by the
Chevalier d*Albret.
1654. Death of Balzac.
1656. Pascal*s Provincial Letters begin.
1657. Fontenelle bom.
xiz
XX IVHAT OCCURRED IN FRANCE DURING
1659. Molière*s Précieuses représentée!.
1659. War of the Fronde ended.
1660. Death of Scarron and of Gaston, Duke of Orléans. Boileau's
Satires begin.
1660. Marriage of Louis XIV. and Maria Theresa, of Spain.
1661. Cardinal Mazarin dies. Bossuet preaches at Versailles.
1662. Death of Pascal, author of the Pensées ^ The Provincial Letters^ etc.
1663. Massillon bom.
1664. Trial and condemnation of Foucquet. Racine's Thébaïde,
1665. Death of Anne of Austria, Queen-mother. Racine*s Alexandre,
' La Rochefoucauld's Maximes appear. Boileau*s Satires end.
1666. Molière*s Misanthrope.
1667. Racine*s Andromaque.
1667. Death of Georges de Scudëry, brother of " Sapho."
1668. La Fontaine's Fables. Racine*s Plaideurs, Le Sage bom.
1669. Marriage of Mme de Sëvignë's daughter to Comte de Grignan.
Racine's Britannicus, Boileau's Épîtres (begun). Tartufe,
1670. Birth of Marie Blanche de Grignan, Mme de Sévigné's first grand-
daughter. Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Publication of Pascal's Pensées.
1671. Birth of Louis Provence de Griignan, Mme de Se vigne 's
grandson.
1672. War against Holland. Chancellor Seguier dies. Racine's Bajazet
performed. Molière*s Femmes Savantes, Boileau's Lutrin (begun).
1673. Molière's Malade Imaginaire, Death of Molière. Racine's Mith-
ridate,
1674. Boileau's Art Poétique,
1675. I^eath of Turenne. Saint Simon bom.
1676. Execution of the poisoner Brinvilliers.
1677. Racine's Phèdre,
1678. Treaty of Nimeguen.
1 680. Death of La Rochefoucauld and Foucquet.
1681. Bossuet's Discours sur V Histoire Universelle,
1682. Bossuet made Bishop of Meaux.
1684. Death of Corneille.
1685. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
1685-86 (?). Louis XIV. privately marries Mme de Maintenon.
1686. Death of Condé. Bossuet*s Éloge on Condë.
1687. Beginning of dispute between " ancients *' and "modems."
MME DE SE VIGNE' S LIFE TIME. xxi
1688. La Bruyère's Caractères, Beginning of PerrauU's Parallèles des
anciens et des modernes.
1689. Racine's Esther. Montesquieu born.
1691. Racine's Athalie.
1692. Death of Ménage.
1693. Death of Mme de la Fayette, of Mlle de Montpensier, and Bussy
Rabutin.
1694. Voltaire born.
1695. Death of La Fontaine and Nicole.
1696. Death of Mme de Se vigne.
Some of thèse dates are naturally approximate only, as works like La Fontaine's Fables^ Boileau's Satires^ Epistles^ Lutrin^ etc., came out at intervais as their several books, cantos, etc., were completed.
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