EVREMOND, CHARLES MARGOTELLI DE ST DENYS, SIEUR DE ST EVREMOND

EVREMOND, CHARLES MARGOTELLI DE ST DENYS, SIEUR DE ST EVREMOND, a literary and social celebrity of the seventeenth century, was born at St Denis du Guast, near Coutances in Normandy, April 1, 1613. Destined for the priesthood, St Evremond began his studies under the Jesuits of Paris, but at an early age, exchanging that career for the more congenial one of a military life, he obtained a lieutenancy in the guards from the great Condé, who took much pleasure in his society, and delighted in the brilliant and caustic wit by which even thus early the young soldier had forced himself into notice. Under this illustrious commander St Evremond fought with distinction at the bloody battles of Rocroi, Fribourg, and Nordlingen, in the last of which he was wounded. His irrepressible fondness for railing and satire proved on more than one occasion the bane of his life; and Condé hearing that his young lieutenant had been laughing at his expense, deprived him of his commission. During the troubles of the Fronde, St Evremond offered his sword and his pen to Cardinal Mazarin, who rewarded his zeal with a pension and the rank of maréchal-de-camp. But his luck with the cardinal was no better than it had been with Condé. He accompanied him on his mission to negotiate the treaty of the Pyrenees, and wrote to Marshal Créqui an account of the proceedings, in which the various diplomats and their measures were so bitterly satirized, that when the affair reached the king's ears he resolved to commit St Evremond to the Bastille. The satirist, however, being warned of the king's intention, fled to Holland, and in the following year (1662) to the English court, where he was well received, and had many powerful friends. In these two countries he spent the remainder of his long life, and could never be persuaded to avail himself of the pardon which his friends in France, with great difficulty, extorted for him from the Grand Monarque. His life at the English court was one of unclouded sunshine. He enjoyed the society of all the political, social, and literary notabilities of the day, and had from the king a pension that more than sufficed for his wants; and though on the accession of James II. he was deprived of his pension, yet at the revolution which placed William of Orange on the throne, his position was so much bettered that he obstinately refused to return to his native country. The remainder of his long life he spent in the moderate enjoyment of everything that could minister to his social and intellectual necessities. Though he was little better than a pleasure-hunter all his life, he retained his health and mental faculties unimpaired till his death, which happened September 20th 1703, in the ninety-first year of his age. The writings, both prose and poetical, of St Evremond, are, for the most part, quite unworthy of the reputation he enjoyed during his lifetime. Though the criticism of Mr Hallam may seem somewhat severe, it is in the main quite justifiable. "Nothing," says that critic, "can be more trifling than the general character of St Evremond's writings; but sometimes he rises to literary criticism, or even civil history: and on such topics he is clear, unaffected, cold, without imagination or sensibility; a type of the frigid being whom an aristocratic and highly polished society is apt to produce. The chief merit of St Evremond is in his style and manner. He has less wit than Voltaire, who contributed to form him, or than Voltaire, whom he contributed to form; but he shows neither the effort of the former, nor the restlessness of the latter." Of his poetry nothing repays perusal, if we except, perhaps, the quatrain which he wrote under the picture of the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos. Of his numerous prose works the best is his Réflexions sur les divers génies du Peuple Romain, which

contains many acute and ingenious ideas. His letters are admirable specimens of a kind of composition in which the French have always excelled. Though by no means a religious man, St Evremond neither himself sneered at Revelation, nor encouraged others to do so; the charge of atheism preferred against him arose from the fact, that after his death certain atheistical works were published under his name, with which he had in reality nothing whatever to do. There have been numerous editions of his works, but the best is that of Des Maizeaux, 3 vols. 4to, London, 1705, with a life, the conjoint production of the author and his editor.