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