Lamothe-le-Vayer. See note to p

1. 20. bien mieux que le lyrique Malherbe ... On Malherbe see note to p. 5, 1, 26. Malherbe wrote an elegy to Du Perrier on the death of the latter's daughter, but spent so long in revising it that it arrived several months after it would hâve been most appreciated by the unfortunate father.

Page 36. 1. 4. La Princesse d'ÉUde was producedon May 8,

1. 14. Alceste est ramené à Èliante par les rebuts de Célimène : an allusion to the Misanthrope, in which the situation of Alceste

towards Célimène seems to hâve been partly suggested to Molière by his own situation towards his wife.

Page 37. 1. 5. en user ai'ec, i. e. agir vis-à-i'is de.

Page 40. 1. 3. Auteuil was in the seventcenth century a pleasant and quiet little town in the south-western ncighbourhood of Paris. Boiieau, INIolière, Racine, La Fontaine, and some other young poets used to ineet there together. The subséquent story relates to one of thèse joyful meetings.

1. 5. yludrieux (1759-183 3), a PVench poet who reniained till his death faithful to the pure traditions of the Classical School. His poems are sometinies élégant and humorous, but too often cold and affected ; his best work is a comedy in three acts, Les Étourdis, produced in 1787.