VAUGELAS, CLAUDE FAVRE, SEIGNEUR DE, BARON DE PbtOGES ( I 595-165o), French grammarian and man of letters, was born at Meximieu (Ain), on Jan. 6, 1595. He became gentle man-in-waiting to Gaston d'Orleans, and continued faithful to this prince in his disgrace. Vaugelas was among the original Academicians. In his Remarques sur la langue francaise he maintained that words and expressions were to be judged by the current usage of the best society, of which, as an habitué of the Hotel de Rambouillet, Vaugelas was a competent judge. He shares with Malherbe the credit of having purified French diction. His book fixed the current usage, and the classical writers of the I7th century regulated their practice by it. Towards the end of
his life Vaugelas became tutor to the sons of Thomas Francis of Savoy, prince of Carignan. He died in Paris in Feb. 165o.
See Remarques sur la langue francaise, edited with a key by V. Conrart, and introductory notes by A. Chassang (Paris, 188o). The principles of Vaugelas's judgments are explained in the Etudes critiques (7e serie) of M. Brunetiere, who regards the name of Vaugelas as a symbol of all that was done in the first half of the 16th century to perfect and purify the French language. See also F. Brunot in the Histoire de la langue et litterature francaise of Petit de Julleville.