FONTAINE, JOHN, a celebrated French poet, and one of the first-rate geniuses of his age, was born at Chateau-Thierry in Champagne, the 8th of July 1621, of a good family. At the age of 19 he entered amongst the Oratorians, but quitted that order 18 months after. He was 22 years of age before he knew his own talents for poetry; but hearing an ode of Malherbe read, upon the assassination of Henry IV. he was so taken with admiration of it, that the poetical fire, which had before lain dormant within him, seemed to be kindled from that of the other great poet. He applied himself to read, to meditate, to repeat, in fine to imitate, the works of Malherbe. The first essays of his pen he confined to one of his relations who made him read the best Latin authors, Horace, Virgil, Terence, Quintilian, &c. and then the
Fontaine. best composition in French and Italian. He applied himself likewise to the study of the Greek authors, particularly Plato and Plutarch. Some time afterwards his parents made him marry a daughter of a lieutenant-general, a relation of the great Racine. This young lady, besides her very great beauty, was remarkable for the delicacy of her wit, and Fontaine never composed any work without consulting her. But as her temper was none of the best, to avoid dissension, he separated himself from her company as often as he well could. The famous duchess of Bouillon, niece to Cardinal Mazarine, being exiled to Chateau-Thierry, took particular notice of Fontaine. Upon her recall, he followed her to Paris; where by the interest of one of his relations, he got a pension settled upon him. He met with great friends and protectors amongst the most distinguished persons of the court, but Madame de la Sabliere was the most particular. She took him to live at her house, and it was then that Fontaine, divested of domestic concerns, led a life conformable to his disposition, and cultivated an acquaintance with all the great men of the age. It was his custom, after he was fixed at Paris, to go every year, during the month of September, to his native place of Chateau-Thierry, and pay a visit to his wife, carrying with him Racine, Despreaux, Chapelle, or some other celebrated writers. When he has sometimes gone thither alone by himself, he has come away without remembering even to call upon her; but seldom omitted selling some part of his lands, by which means he squandered away a considerable fortune. After the death of Madame de la Sabliere, he was invited into England, particularly by Madame Mazarine, and by St Evremond, who promised him all the sweets and comforts of life; but the difficulty of learning the English language, and the liberality of the duke of Burgundy, prevented his voyage.
About the end of the year 1692 he fell dangerously ill: and, as is customary upon these occasions in the Romish church, he made a general confession of his whole life to P. Poguet, an Oratorian; and, before he received the sacrament, he sent for the gentlemen of the French Academy, and in their presence declared his sincere compunction for having composed his Tales; a work he could not reflect upon without the greatest repentance and detestation; promising that if it should please God to restore his health, he would employ his talents only in writing upon matters of morality or piety. He survived this illness two years, living in the most exemplary and edifying manner, and died the 13th of March 1695, being 74 years of age. When they stripped his body, they found next his skin a hair shirt; which gave room for the following expression of the younger Racine:
Et l'Auteur de Jaconde est orné d'un Cilice.
Fontaine's character is remarkable for a simplicity, candour, and probity seldom to be met with. He was of an obliging disposition; cultivating a real friendship with his brother poets and authors; and what is very rare, beloved and esteemed by them all. His conversation was neither gay nor brilliant, especially when he was not amongst his intimate friends. One day being invited to a dinner at a farmer general's, he ate a great deal, but did not speak. Rising up from table very
early, under pretext of going to the academy, one of the company represented to him that it was not yet a proper time: "Well (says he), if it is not, I will stay a little longer." He had one son by his wife in the year 1660. At the age of 14, he put him into the hands of M. de Harley, the first president, recommending to him his education and fortune. It is said, that having been a long time without seeing him, he happened to meet him one day visiting, without recollecting him again, and mentioned to the company that he thought that young man had a good deal of wit and understanding. When they told him it was his own son, he answered in the most tranquil manner, "Ha! truly I am glad on't." An indifference, or rather an absence of mind, influenced his whole conduct, and rendered him often insensible to the inclemency of the weather. Madame de Bouillon going one morning to Versailles, saw him, abstracted in thought, sitting in an arbour; returning at night, she found him in the same place, and in the same attitude, although it was very cold, and had rained almost the whole day. He carried this simplicity so far, that he was scarcely sensible of the bad effects some of his writings might occasion, particularly his Tales. In a great sickness, his confessor exhorting him to prayer and alms deeds: "As for alms deeds (replied Fontaine), I am not able, having nothing to give; but they are about publishing a new edition of my Tales, and the bookseller owes me a hundred copies; you shall have them to sell, and distribute their amount amongst the poor." Another time P. Poguet exhorting him to repent of his faults, "If he has committed any (cried the nurse), I am sure it is more from ignorance than malice, for he has as much simplicity as an infant." One time having composed a tale, wherein he made a profane application of those words of the Gospel, "Lord, five talents thou didst deliver to me," he dedicated it, by a most ingenious prologue, to the celebrated Arnauld, telling him, it was to show to posterity the great esteem he had for the learned doctor. He was not sensible of the indecency of the dedication, and the profane application of the text, till Boileau and Racine represented it to him. He addressed another, by a dedication in the same manner, to the archbishop of Paris. His Fables are an immortal work, exceeding every thing in that kind, both ancient and modern, in the opinion of the learned. People of taste, the oftener they read them, will find continually new beauties and charms, not to be met with elsewhere. The descendants of this great poet were long exempted in France from all taxes and impositions; a privilege which the intendents of Soisson thought it an honour to confirm to them.
Fontainbleau, a town in the Isle of France, and in the Gatinois, remarkable for its fine palace, which has been the place where the kings of France used to lodge when they went a hunting. It was first embellished by Francis I. and every successive king has added something to it; so that it may now be called the finest pleasure house in the world. It stands in the midst of a forest, consisting of 26,424 arpents of land, each containing 100 square perches, and each perch 18 feet. E. Long. 2. 23. N. Lat. 40. 22.
Fontaines, Peter Francis, a French critic, was born of a good family at Rouen in 1685. At 15, he entered into the society of the Jesuits; and at 30, quitted
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Fontarabia. quitted it, for the sake of returning to the world. He was a priest, and had a cure in Normandy: but left it, and was, as a man of wit and letters, some time with the cardinal d'Auvergne. Having excited some attention at Paris by certain critical productions, the Abbé Bignon in 1724 committed to him the Journal des Savans. He acquitted himself well in this department, and was peaceably enjoying the applause of the public, when his enemies, whom by critical strictures in his Journal he had made such, formed an accusation against him of a most abominable crime, and procured him to be imprisoned. By the credit of powerful friends, he was set at liberty in 15 days; the magistrate of the police took upon himself the trouble of justifying him in a letter to the Abbé Bignon; and this letter having been read amidst his fellow labourers in the Journal, he was unanimously re-established in his former credit. This happened in 1725. But with whatever repute he might acquit himself in this Journal, frequent disgusts made him frequently abandon it. He laboured meanwhile in some new periodical works, from which he derived his greatest fame. In 1731, he began one under the title of Nouvelliste du Parnasse, ou Reflections sur les Ouvrages nouveaux: but only proceeded to two volumes; the work having been suppressed by authority, from the incessant complaints of authors ridiculed therein. About three years after, in 1735, he obtained a new privilege for a periodical production, entitled, Observations sur les Ecrits Modernes; which, after continuing to 33 volumes, was suppressed again in 1743. Yet the year following, 1744, he published another weekly paper, called, Jugemens sur les Ouvrages nouveaux, and proceeded to 11 volumes: the two last being done by other hands. In 1745, he was attacked with a disorder in the breast, which ended in a dropsy that proved fatal in five weeks. "He was (says M. Freron) born a sentimental person; a philosopher in conduct as well as in principle; exempt from ambition; and of a noble firm spirit, which would not submit to sue for preferments or titles. In common conversation he appeared only a common man: but when subjects of literature, or any thing out of the ordinary way, were agitated, he discovered great force of imagination and wit." Besides the periodical works mentioned above, he was the author of many others: his biographer gives us no less than 17 articles; many of them critical, some historical, and some translations from English writers, chiefly from Pope, Swift, Fielding, &c. The Abbé de la Porte, published, in 1757, L'Esprit de l'Abbé des Fontaines, in 4 vols. 12mo.