VOITURE, VINCENT, a French writer of great reputation during his day, was born at Amiens, in 1598. He was educated at Paris, at the Colleges of Calvi and of Boncour. While in connection with the former college, he wrote, in 1612, his Hymnus Virginis seu Astree, which was much admired. Voiture got a sinecure clerkship from the superintendent of Finance, and he received an introduction to the celebrated hotel of Madame de Rambouillet. Here he soon rose to distinction, and his society was courted by the great and the influential of France. He visited England, Spain, Africa, and Italy, in all of which countries his remarkable quickness and fluency, as well as his elegant wit and his polite badinage, gained for him numerous friends, and materially extended his fame. He died maître d'hôtel to the king, and a member of the French Academy, in 1648. Voiture published nothing during his lifetime except his college verses. His writings—so full of bel-esprit, according to Voltaire—were collected after his death by his nephew in 1650, and they have since been frequently reprinted. The Letters of Voiture have been twice translated into English, once by Davies, in 1657, and the second time by various authors, of whom Dryden was the chief, in 1736.