OINE DE (1532-1589), French poet and member of the Pleiade,
was born at Venice in 1532. He was the natural son of the scholar Lazare de
Baif, who was at that time French ambassador at Venice. Thanks, perhaps, to
the surroundings of his childhood, he grew up an enthusiast for the fine
arts, and surpassed in zeal all the leaders of the Renaissance in France.
His father spared no pains to secure the best possible education for his
son. The boy was taught Latin by Charles Estienne, and Greek by Ange
Vergece, the Cretan scholar and calligraphist who designed Greek types for
Francis I. When he was eleven years old he was put under the care of the
famous Jean Daurat (_q.v._). Ronsard, who was eight years his senior, now
began to share his studies. Claude Binet tells how young Baif, bred on
Latin and Greek, smoothed out the tiresome beginnings of the Greek language
for Ronsard, who in return initiated his companion into the mysteries of
French versification. Baif possessed an extraordinary facility, and the
mass of his work has injured his reputation. Besides a number of volumes of
short poems of an amorous or congratulatory kind, he translated or
paraphrased various pieces from Bion, Moschus, Theocritus, Anacreon,
Catullus and Martial. He resided in Paris, and enjoyed the continued favour
of the court. He founded in 1567 an _academie de musique et de poesie_,[1]
with the idea of establishing a closer union between music and poetry; his
house became famous for the charming concerts which he gave, entertainments
at which Charles IX. and Henry III. frequently flattered him with their
presence. Baif elaborated a system for regulating French versification by
quantity. In this he was not a pioneer. Jacques de la Taille had written in
1562 the _Maniere de faire des vers en francais comme en grec et en latin_
(printed 1573), and other poets had made experiments in the same direction.
The 16th-century poets did not realize the [v.03 p.0215] incompatibility of
the system of quantity with French rhythm. Baif's innovations included a
line of 15 syllables known as the _vers baifin_. He also meditated reforms
in French spelling. His theories are exemplified in _Etrenes de poezie
Franzoeze an vers mezures_ (1514). His works were published in 4 volumes,
entitled _Oeuvres en rime_ (1573), consisting of _Amours, Jeux, Passetemps,
et Poemes_, containing, among much that is now hardly readable, some pieces
of infinite grace and delicacy. His sonnet o