CHAPTER XXXIII.

HISTORY OF POLITE LITERATURE IN PROSE FROM 1650 TO 1700.

Low State of Literature in Italy 809 Crescimbeni 810 Age of Louis XIV. in France 810 Fontenelle--his Character 810 His Dialogues of the Dead 811 Those of Fenelon 811 Fontenelle’s Plurality of Worlds 811 His History of Oracles 811 St. Evremond 812 Madame de Sevigné 812 The French Academy 812 French Grammars 813 Bouhour’s Entretiens d’Ariste et d’Eugène 813 Attacked by Barbier d’Ancour 814 La Manière de Bien Penser 815 Rapin’s Reflections on Eloquence and Poetry 815 His Parallel’s of Great Men 815 Bossu on Epic Poetry 816 Fontenelle’s Critical Writings 816 Preference of French Language to Latin 816 General Superiority of Ancients disputed 816 Charles Perrault 816 Fontenelle 817 Boileau’s Defence of Antiquity 817 First Reviews--Journal des Sçavans 817 Reviews Established by Bayle 818 Reviews Established by Le Clerc 818 Leipsic Acts 819 Bayle’s Thoughts on the Comet 819 His Dictionary 819 Baillet--Morhof 820 The Ana 820 English Style in this Period 820 Hobbes 821 Cowley 821 Evelyn 821 Dryden 821 His Essay on Dramatic Poesy 822 Improvements in his Style 823 His Critical Character 823 Rymer on Tragedy 823 Sir William Temple’s Essays 824 Style of Locke 824 Sir George Mackenzie’s Essays 824 Andrew Fletcher 824 Walton’s Complete Angler 824 Wilkins’ New World 824 Antiquity defended by Temple 825 Wotton’s Reflection’s 825 Quevedo’s Visions 825 French Heroic Romances 826 Novels of Madame La Fayette 826 Scarron’s Roman Comique 826 Cyrano de Bergerac 827 Segrais 827 Perrault 827 Hamilton 827 Télémaque of Fenelon 827 Deficiency of English Romances 828 Pilgrim’s Progress 828 Turkish Spy 829 Chiefly of English Origin 830 Swift’s Tale of a Tub 831