is equivalent to "faire bonne chere" which has for centuries
been used proverbially for what we call "a good time." _V. supra_ in
"The Farewell" of Charles of Orleans.

MALHERBE.

EXTRACTS FROM THE "ODE TO LOUIS XIII."

Stanza 3, line 1. _Centieme._ He dates the Huguenot trouble from a
century. It may be said to have originated in the placards threatening
the defilement of the Sacrament, placards which appeared in the streets
of Paris in 1525.

Stanza 2, line 3. _Le nom de Juste._ Louis XIII had no particular
affectation of that title: it is rather a reminiscence of his distant
collatoral and namesake who closed the fifteenth century.

Last stanza, line 1. _Toutes les autres morts._ He has just been
speaking of death in battle against the factions.

SONNET ON HIS SON'S DEATH.

Line 1. _Mon fils._ The only survivor of his many children, a young man,
just called to the bar at Aix and passionately loved by his father, he
bore the curious name of Marc-Anthony. A M. de Piles killed him in a
duel, having for second his brother-in-law. The whole was an honourable
bit of business, and the death such as men of honour must be prepared to
risk: but Malherbe would see no reason and defamed the adversary.

Line 9. _La Raison._ The idea runs all through Malherbe's work. It is
his distinguishing note, and is the spirit which differentiates him so
powerfully from the sixteenth century, that this stoical balance or
regulator which he calls "La Raison," and which governed France for two
hundred years, is his rule and text for verse and prose as well as for
practical life. Even the grandeur to which it gave rise seemed to him
accidental. He demanded "la raison" only, and felt the necessity of it
in art as acutely as though its absence were something immoral.

EXTRACTS FROM THE "CONSOLATION OF DU PERRIER."

Stanza 1, line 1. _Duperrier._ A critic of sorts and a gentleman, living
in Provence and perhaps of Provencal ancestry. The verses were written
while Malherbe's fame was still local, two years before the king's visit
had lifted him to Paris.

Stanza 2, line 2. _Ta fille._ The child Marguerite. Her name does not
appear in the poem nor in any letter; we have it from Racan.

Stanza 10, line 3. _Et la garde, etc._ These two lines are quoted,
sometimes, not often, by admirers who would prove that Malherbe was not
incapable of colour or of warmth.

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