fait de main d'ouvrier =^fait de main de maître

3. Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez de (1597-1655), letter-writer and the most influential critic of his day.

4. Voiture, Vincent (i 598-1648), a follower of Balzac in the art of letter-writing and the favorite poet of the Hôtel de Rambouillet.

5. Ce seze, etc., Mme de Se vigne had begun her incomparable correspondence twenty years before this Caractère, Mme de Maintenon, Mme de La Fayette and many others had also shown great talent in the same line.