François de, a celebrated French poet of his time, was born at Caen about the year 1556, being descended of a noble and ancient family. He quitted Normandy at the age of seventeen, and went into Provence, where he attached himself to the family of Henry of Angoulême, the natural son of Henry II., and was in the service of that prince till he was killed by Altoviti in 1586. At length Cardinal du Perrou, being informed of his merit and abilities, introduced him to Henry IV. who took him into his service. After the death of that monarch, Mary de Medicis settled a pension of five hundred crowns upon our poet, who died at Paris in 1628. The best and most complete edition of his poetical works is that of 1666, with Ménage's remarks. Malherbe so far excelled all the French poets who preceded him, that Boileau considers him as the father of French poetry; but he composed with great difficulty, and put his mind on the rack in correcting what he wrote. He was a man of singular humour, and somewhat blunt in his behaviour. When the poor used to promise him that they would pray to God for him, he answered them, that "he did not believe they could have any great interest in heaven, since they were left in such a bad condition upon earth; and that he should be better pleased if the Duke de Luyme, or some other favourite, had made him the same promise." During his last illness he was with great difficulty persuaded to confess to a priest, for which he gave this reason, that "he never used to confess but at Easter." And a few moments before his death, when he awoke from a lethargy, he on a sudden reproved his landlady, who waited on him, for using a word that was not good French; saying to his confessor, who reprimanded him for it, that he could not help it, and he would defend the purity of the French language to the last moment of his life."