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 enkindled 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 best Fontaine, best compositions 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 Sablière 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, Defreux, 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 setting some part of his lands, by which means he squandered away a considerable fortune. After the death of Madame de la Sablière, 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 Roman church, he made a general confession of his whole life to P. Poquet, 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 1665. 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 fickleness, his confessors 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 bookeller owes me a hundred copies; you shall have them to sell, and distribute their amount amongst the poor." Another time P. Poquet 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 reprehended 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 are exempted in France from all taxes and impositions; a privilege which the descendants of Soisson to this day think it an honour to confirm to them.