Retrofpeét of French Literature.—Poetry. 
roth Year, 1 vol. rz2mo. Price one Fr. 
(about Ten-pence Englifh.) 
The Almanack of the Mufes is the 
molt ancient, the moft celebrated, and 
undoubtedly the beft of all the literary 
almanacks publifhed in France. It has 
of courfe given birth to a great number 
of veriodical collections of a fimilar 
kind, which have had more or lefs fuc- 
cefs, according to their refpective me- 
rits. A fuccefsful example, indeed, 
produces a prodigious effect in that 
country; for it is well known that the 
Lettres Perfannes, of the Prefident Mon- 
tef{quieu, engendered the Lettres Chi- 
noifes, Turques,  Siamoifes, Orientales, 
Africaines, Athéniennes, Fuives, and Pe- 
ruviennes. Such was the influence of 
the celebrated work alluded to above, 
that the tranflator of the romances of 
Clarifla and Grandifon thought proper 
to publifh the one under the title of 
Lettres Anglaifes, while the other affum- 
ed that of Nouvelles Lettres Anglaifes. 
Nothing was more common than for 
the Parifian bookfellers of thofe days 
to fay, ‘* Write us fome Perfian let- 
ters; and immediately appeared Let- 
tres Flamandes, Hollandaifes, Portugaifes, 
Ecoffarfes, and Mhonaijes, moft of which 
cing but feeble imitations of a great 
original, they have all, two or three 
only excepted, been long fince confign- 
ed to oblivion. 
It is exactly in the fame manner, that 
the very fortunate work now before us, 
has given rife to the Etrennes du Par- 
nafje, Etrennes d’ Apollon, [ Almanach des 
Graces, des Mufes Allemandes, des Dames, 
de Leonore, du Chanfonnier, des Etrennes 
ae Polymnie, and all the Almanachs Ly- 
riques, Péetiqnes, Anacreontiques, Enig- 
matiques, Dramatiques, Gc.. M. d’Or- 
feuil, in 1783, conceived the idea of. 
analyfing 164 almanacks in two vo- 
lumes, 12mo.; but he foon found that 
a few pages would have been fufficient 
to give the /pirit of nine-tenths of 
thefe ephemerai colleétions. 
M. Sautreau de Marfy, who was 
one of the writers in the 1’ Année Lit- 
teraire, le Fournal des Dames, and le 
Journal de Paris ; and who, in conjunc- 
tion with Imbert, publifhed the in- 
terefting colle&tion called Jes. Annales 
Poetiques, in 40 vols. duodecimo, was 
alfo the perfon who conceived firft the 
idea of 1 Almanach des Mufes, which he 
conducted, from its firft publication, 
until the beginning of 1799. Some of 
the beit poets of France did not dif- 
dain to infert their produétions in this 
Monruty Mac, No. 117, 
ee 
colle&tion; while the bad ones, who 
could not find admiffion for their pro- 
dations, avenged themfelves by term- 
ing itl’ Almanach des Bufes. It was thus 
that Piron appeared at times exceed- 
ingly fatiricalon the French Academy, 
becaufe he defpaired of being admitted 
a member, which occafioned M. Fon- 
tenelle to fay— 
a 
‘¢ Sommes-nous trente-neuf, on eft a nos 
genoux 5 
«* Mais fommes-nous quarante, on fe moque 
de nous.” 
M. Sautreau was fucceeded in the edi- 
torhhip by M. Vigée, a literary man of 
confiderable ability, who excelled in poe- 
try, and had acquired fome reputation by 
his talents for the drama. The various 
crifes, however, to which the French re- 
public was by turns fubjected were not 
favourable to the republic of letters; and 
the lyre of Apollo produced only feeble 
and plaintive founds, amidft the miferies 
occafioned by civil difcord. It was then 
that a compilation which had contained the 
fugitive produétions of fuch men as Vol-~ 
taire, Collé, Piron, Marmontel, Bernis, 
Dorat, Laharpe, Nivernois, Greffet, Co- 
Jardeau, and St. Lambert, began to de- 
cline, for the firft time, until a fhort inter- 
val of peace, added to the amazing con- 
quefts of France, gave new vigour to her 
poets. 
The Almanack of the Mufes for the 
12th year, conftitutes the goth volume of 
that colleétion. Among the poets whofe 
verfes are preferved in it, we diftinguifh 
Armand Gouffé, one of the authors of the 
Vaudeville ; Arnault, to whom the French 
theatre is indebted for Marius at Mintur- 
na (Marius a Minturna) as well as feveral 
tragedies; Aubert, who in the depart- 
ment of fables acknowledges no other 
mafter than the inimitable Lafontaine ; 
Baour Lormain, the French imitator of 
Offian; Boifard; whofe fables have al- 
ready pafled through many editions; De 
Guerle, who has tranflated Petronius inte 
verfe, and written an original work, en- 
titled ** Eloge des Perruques ;’’ Delille, 
who has compofed more produétions than 
Homer, Virgil, Taffo, and Milton united, 
and who, in the opinion of his country-. 
men, is not only the moft voluminous, but 
alfo the firft, poet of the prefent age. In 
addition to thefe, we ought alfo to men- 
tion Duault, no unequal rival of Bertin 
and Parny; Ducis, one of the firtt writers 
of tragedy now living; Fayolle, a good 
poet, and man of letters; Galton, the 
tranflator of the Zneid ; Guinguiné, pro- 
5A. feflor 
