More about Claude BillardAuthor(s): L. E. DabneySource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 48, No. 5 (May, 1933), pp. 316-317Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2912334 .

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316 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, MAY, 1933

to the exclusion of all else are really blind and uncritical in their attitude, as well as ignorant of real conditions. He criticizes his own government for its false modesty in refusing to admit the greatness of the seventeenth century, and to praise the great men it had produced.12

While these speakers offer nothing that is original, while one may not even say in the language of Pascal that "la disposition des mati-eres est nouvelle," this " conference" is an interesting link in the chain of the famous quarrel that so sharply divided French writers in the seventeenth century. Since these "conferences" were public affairs, and apparently popular, if one may judge from the fact that they lasted over a period of ten years, they undoubt- edly influenced public opinion, and reflect contemporary interests. In their printed form their influence was indubitably still greater. Cartesian philosophical ideas are not merely discussed in the salons of the precieux and the bas-bleu; its principles are here brought before a bourgeoisie interested in culture, and the Cartesian meth- ods of reasoning and criticism are used by these speakers. It may be noted in passing that the arguments employed by the supporters of the moderns are of greater weight than those used by their opponents. When the same question is more widely discussed later in the century by more prominent men their arguments are not only those already used by the Cartesians but also by the speakers at the " conference " of the fifteenth of June, 1637.

LULA M. RICHARDSON The Johns Hopkins Vtniversity

MORE ABOUT CLAUDE BILLARD A short collection of poems published by Claude Billard at

Nancy 1 reveals a few additional facts concerning his life. He was, we learn, forced to take refuge at Nancy with the Cardinal de Lorraine, for the first poem in the collection praises the cardinal, who gave help to his

Muse flotante ez mers de calomnie Oft 1'ingrate patrie & un traistre Sinon Furent sans y penser les lustres de mon nom.

12 Cf. Recueil, pp. 534-36. 1 ymne de la Lorraine, Nancy, Blaise Andrea, 1602.

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MORE ABOUT CLAUDE BILLARD 317

The poet then describes the resources of Nancy, "la cour . .. qui me recent errant, qui m'ha fauorise," and proposes to sing the praises of the princes,

Qui furent mon support en ces temps malheureux,

De Madame,2 Minerve aus ames les plus belles, Ame du tout Royalle, oil luisent immortelles Les plus rares vertus, oil priue de secours, J'eux [i. e. j'eus] press du malheur, ma rade et mon recours.

Another poem, describing a school at Pont-a-Mousson, contains no personal references, but a third, Les Bains de Plombie'res, reveals Billard's desire to be with his family and the length of his stay:

A tort persecute, voguant, errant, flottant, Unse moys desuny de ce que i'ayme tant: Second Laertien au bris de mon naufrage, Mais d'vne ame Frangoyse, & plus grand de courage, Qui du port d'Alcinoe, & content, & vainqueur Dois bientost voir l'Itaque ot i'ay laiss6 mon coeur.

The collection ends with a longer poem, Adieu de Nancy. Billard is reluctant to leave friends at Nancy: Saint-Geran, the due de Bar, Madame (la Minerve des beaus esprits), the two Vaudemont, the princesses de la Croix de Lorraine, De Mouy, Chaligny, the sceurs de Rohan,3 and Mesdames d'Arancour. He is, however, called away by

Les devices d'vn hymen~e Les faueurs de la destine, Et la veue de six enfans, Six greffes sur mes ans,

and will hasten home to dry the eyes of his Penelope. Since Billard complains of the difficulty of supporting nine chil-

dren in 1617 in the concluding lines of his Eglise Triomphante, the last bit of information is interesting, if not important.

L. E. DABNEY University of Tesxas

2 The sister of the cardinal. B Billard dedicated Genbvre to Miles de Rohan, MWrov&e to the duc de

Rohan, and wrote a tombeau for their sister, Marphise, duchesse des Deux Ponts.

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