The Poems of Lord Fairfax. 247 
of the Caroline and Commonwealth period read and thought. They 
are like an old diary in which a great man has jotted down a list 
of the books he owns, or of poems he has memorized; they are 
like a package of old letters, in which the writer tells us of his 
favorite authors and his literary tastes. It is to be observed that 
this moralist, who mentions but one English writer—his great-uncle— 
turns to French literature. La Solitude is certainly not only Saint- 
Amant’s best piece of work, but one of the finest French poems 
of the period, and the evident admiration of Fairfax for it speaks 
well for his taste. Though Saint-Amant had twice visited London 
and was possibly known there as a poet, only two other unimpor- 
tant translations of his verse have been noticed in English literature.! 
It is worthy of mention that Saint-Amant himself had some very 
pronounced opinions concerning Fairfax, who probably never read 
the Frenchman’s Lpigramme Endiablee sur Fairfax? 
There is another interesting point concerning La Solitude. It is 
well known that in 1650 Andrew Marvell came to Appleton House 
as a tutor for Mary Fairfax. He had already written verse, but it 
had not been nature-poetry; his grotesque Flecnoe and his absurd 
verses Upon the Death of Lord Hastings have nothing of the meadow 

‘See A. H. Upham, Zhe French Influence in English Literature from the 
Accession of Elizabeth to the Restoration, New York, 1908, pp. 3845, 405, 409, 
412 It is interesting to read Saint-Amant’s brief reference to Ben Jonson 
in his Z’ Albion. 
: Je crois qu'il doit bien estre en peine, 
L’execrable tyran qui preside aux enfers, 
Quand, dans les feux et dans les fers, 
Il songe au noir object des foudres de ma haine; 
Son vieux sceptre enfumé tremble en sa fiere main; 
Il redoute Fairfax, ce prodige inhumain; 
Il craint que ce monstre n’aspire 
Au degré le plus haut de son horrible empire, 
Le degré le plus haut est celuy le plus bas 
C’est ou ce prince des sabats, 
? 
Des endroits les plus clairs aux endroits les plus sombres, 
Tomba pour regner sur les ombres ; 
C’est la, dis-je, qu’il craint que par quelque attentat, 
Que par quelque moyen oblique, 
Fairfax n’aille du moins renverser son estat 
Pour en faire une republique. 
Et voila les raisons qui l’ont fait hesiter 
Jusqu’a cette heure 4 l’emporter. 
Ocuvres Complétes de Saint-Amant (Paris, 1855), vol. 1, p. 472. 
