140 ©Extracis from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. [Sept 1, 
CREBILLON.—1674-1762. 
Tt was a custom among the Jesuits to 
record the characters arid talents of those 
youths whose education they superin- 
tended. After Crebillon had long estab- 
lished his fame as a tragic writer, he had 
the curiosity to know in what manner he 
had been represented; and to oblige him, 
the superior of the college at Dijon, 
where he had been educated, inspected 
the catalogue, and fotind these words un- 
der his name:—“ Puer ingeniosus, sed 
insignis Nebulo.” 
This celebrated tragedian seemed des- 
tined in his youth to follow a very di& 
ferent employment from that of a dra- 
matist. His father placed him with an 
attorney in Paris; but his genius pre- 
vailed—the attorney had the good sense 
to perceive, and the generosity not to 
discourage it. At the first representa- 
tion of Atrée et Thyeste, the worthy man, 
then at the point of death, desired to be 
‘carried to the theatre. When after the 
curtain dropped, and the success of the 
tragedy was pronounced to be complete, 
Crebillon went to see him-in his box, he 
embraced the young author, and said, 
with tears of joy in his eyes, “I die hap- 
py—'twas I who made you a poet, and I 
How consign you to the applause and li- 
berality of my country.” 
When Crebillon composed his trage- 
dies, it was always walking, at which 
times he appeared uncommonly agitated. 
His favourite retreat on such occasions 
was the Jardin du Roi. His friend Du- 
vernet, the celebrated anatomist, had 
given him a key which opened to the 
most private recesses of the garden. 
Crebillon happened to be there one day 
as usual: supposing himself alone, he 
had thrown off his coat, and being then 
@ the vein, walked precipitately about 
the garden, at the same time declaiming 
in the most frantic manner. A gardener 
observed him; and persuaded that the 
man (whom he did not know) was either 
mad, or under a violent agony of mind, 
from some great crime he had commit- 
ted, ran immediately to Duvernet, to im- 
part his suspicions. Duvernet instantly 
went to see what was the matter; but 
finding it to be only our inspired poet, 
writhing in all the contorsions of a Sybil, 
le retired without disturbing him, after 
laughing heartily at the gardener’s mis’ 
take. 
One singularity attended this great 
poet: he never could be induced to re- 
vise or correct any of his plays—his aver- 
gion to such a task was insurmountable; 
a 
complaints in his diocese, and it was 
consequently most of his pieces, and his 
best scenes, were all the result of first 
impressions, 
Tle never sat down regularly to form 
the plan of his tragedies. He seldom 
even wrote them down on paper, till 
they were finished in his own mind, and 
ready for representation, Such was the 
astonishing tenacity of his memory, that 
when he offered his Catiline to the play- 
ers, he recited the whole piece, from be- 
ginning to end, while the copyist of the 
theatre committed it to writing. 
PIRON—1689-1773. ; 
Dijon, the birth-place of Bouhiers,. 
Bossuet, Crebillon, and Buffon, likewise 
produced this very ingenious dramatist. 
His Métromanie is perhaps one of the - 
best comedies that has been acted in 
France since the days of Moligre. 
In private society, a most lively nar- 
rator, and au excellent epigrammatist ; 
in conversation spirited and entertain- 
ing; his wit pointed and original, with- 
out any mixture of ill nature, or tendency 
to satire; no man could have furnished a 
more ample collection of bons mots and 
repartees. Among the numerous Anas 
with which the French abound; it is 
much to be wandered at that no Pironi- 
ana has been produced. 
The following epitaph was made for 
him :— 
Piron n’est plus! Adieu Naitveté 
Franchise, Esprit, Genie et Gaité, 
HUET, BISHOP OF AVRANCHES—1630. 
1721. 
Such was the early and extreme pas; 
sion of this excellent and very learned 
prelate for study, that (to use his own 
expression) he had scarcely escaped from _ 
the arms of his nurse before he began to 
envy all whom he saw with a book in 
their hands. ; ¢ 
He accompanied Bochart to Sweden, - 
who had been invited to that court by 
Queen Christiana. At Stockholm Huet 
found a manuscript of Origenes, which 
he transcribed, and afterwards published 
with notes. 
It was he who formed the plan of 
those numerous editions of classics which 
were undertaken by order of Louis XIV, 
for the instruction of his son, the Dau- 
hin. c 
So devoted was this prelate to study, 
and so constantly engaged in his librar 
or'closet, that he was usually inaccessi- 
ble to visitors. This gave rise to some 
asked why the king did not send them q 
' bishop | 
