Read from Chatfield-Taylor's Pathway to Fame,
which gives the dramatist's life as a strolling player. Describe one of
the fetes for which he wrote his little farces and ballets. Have a brief
talk on the advance in stage-setting at this time, due to the unlimited
sums Louis spent on his fetes, and the employment of the greatest
artists for the scenery. Compare this with the setting of the stage in
Shakespeare's theater.

VII--ART

1. _Architecture_--Mansart, Perrault, Lemercier. Some of the great
public buildings built during this reign. Show photographs.

2. _Painting_--Lebrun (foundation of the Louvre collection). Lesueur,
Mignard, Philippe de Champaigne, Largilliere, Watteau. Portraits of the
King.

3. _Sculpture_--Puget, Sarazin, Coysevox. Photographs of surviving
examples.

4. _Music_--Founding of modern musical drama by Mazarin (Strozzi's
opera-bouffe in the Louvre, in 1645). Cambert, L'Abbe Perrin, Lulli.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Louis Hourticq: Art in France. R. G. Kingsley: History
of French Art. Bourgeois: France under Louis XIV. W. H. Ward:
Architecture of the Renaissance in France. Esther Singleton: French and
English Furniture.

Louis was a wonderful art patron, and spent enormous sums upon artistic
objects. He brought from Antwerp a group of three great engravers. He
established the Beauvais and Gobelins manufactories of tapestry.
Porcelain was made at Saint Cloud. Furniture was designed by Ballin and
Boule. Lenotre led the world in the art of landscape-gardening.

VIII--THE KING AND THE CHURCH

1. _The King's Personal Religion_--Ecclesiastical and political rather
than ethical. His devotions and his morals. Effect of Madame de
Maintenon's influence in later years.

2. _Two Great Prelates and Their Feud_--Bossuet; his ability, temper,
and commanding influence. Fenelon: story of his life; influence on the
Duke of Burgundy; reading from Telemaque. The fundamental difference in
the two men's conception of religion.

3. _New Movements_--Protestantism: suppression by the state. Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes. Jansenism: Jansen and his book; its meaning.
Demolition of the Abbey of Port-Royal. Quietism: Story of Madame Guyon
and reading from her life (Upham's edition).

4. _The King and the Jesuits_--Origin of the order and its purposes.
Edicts for and against the Jesuits, and reasons for them. Power and
success of Pere LeTellier. Reading from Pascal's Provincial Letters.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--The