th, for the display of
the moralising spirit of the age, which, in Regnier, takes the form of
a kind of epicurean pococurantism mingled with occasional bursts of
noble sentiment. The seventh is one of the most personal of all; it is
entitled 'L'amour qu'on ne peut dompter,' and is a comment on the text
_Video meliora proboque_. The eighth is one of the innumerable
imitations of the famous ninth satire of the first book of Horace, _Ibam
forte via sacra_, and perhaps the happiest of all such, though it is
difficult not to regret that Regnier should have devoted his too rare
moments of work to mere imitation. The ninth, however, is open to no
such charge. It is entitled _Le Critique outre_, and is an
extraordinarily vigorous and happy remonstrance against the intolerant
pedantry with which Malherbe was criticising the Pleiade. This satire is
addressed to Rapin, the veteran contributor to the _Menippee._ It is
impossible to describe the weak side of the reforms which Malherbe, and
after him Boileau, introduced into French poetry, better than in these
lines, which deserve citation for their literary importance:--

Cependant leur scavoir ne s'estend seulement
Qu'a regratter un mot douteux au jugement,
Prendre garde qu'un qui ne heurte une diphtongue;
Espier si des vers la rime est breve ou longue;
Ou bien si la voyelle, a l'autre s'unissant,
Ne rend point a l'oreille un vers trop languissant.
Ils rampent bassement, foibles d'inventions,
Et n'osent, peu hardis, tenter les fictions,
Froids a l'imaginer; ear s'ils font quelque chose
C'est proser de la rime, et rimer de la prose,
Que l'art lime et relime, et polit de facon,
Qu'elle rend a l'oreille un agreable son.

The tenth satire, with its title 'Le souper ridicule,' seems to return
to Horace, but in reality the scene described has little in common with
the _Coena_ of Nasidienus. It affords Regnier an excellent opportunity
for displaying his talent for Dutch painting, but is in this respect
inferior to the sequel 'Le mauvais gite.' The subject of this is
sufficiently unsavoury, and the satire is almost the only one which in
the least deserves Boileau's strictures on the author's 'rimes
cyniques,' but the vigour and skill of the treatment are most
remarkable. The twelfth is short, and once more apologetically personal.
But the thirteenth is the longest, one of the most famous, and
unquestionably on the whole the best work of t