EVRENIOND. CHARLES DE ST. DENYS, SEIaNEUR DE ST. EVRE aIOND, was born April 1, 1613, at St.-Denys.le-Guast, near Coutances iu Normandy. He entered the army early, and by his literary talents and sprightly wit, as well as bravery, acquired the friendship of Tureune, Cond6, and other of the most distinguished men of that brilliant epoch. Cond6 made him lieutenant of his guards, for the sake of his society ; and he fought with that great commander at the battles of Rocroi and Nordlingen. But the prince, though fond of raillery at the expense of others, could not bear it levelled against himself ; and St. Evremond, by an imprudent exercise of his satiric humour, lost his patron and his lieutenancy in 1643. In the wars of the Fronde he espoused the royal cause, and was rewarded with pro motion and a pension. He incurred a three months' imprisonment in the Bastile by making too free with Cardinal Mazarin ; but found means to reinstate himself in the minister's favour. Another indis cretion iu ridiculing the treaty of the Pyrenees (unless, as has been said, there was some secret cause for his disgrace, and this was only a pretext), led to a second order for his arrest in 1661. He received timely notice, and fled, first to Holland, then to England, in which two countries the rest of bis long life was spent. Louis XIV., though solicited by his most favourite courtiers to pardon St. Evremond, remained inflexible till 1683, when be granted the exile a tardy per mission to return. But it was then too late for St. Evremond again to change the scene ; and though in banishment, his life had all that he required for happiness. He was a favourite with Charles II., who
gave him a pension of 300/., and his society was courted by the most distinguished wits and beauties of that reign ; nor was ho less fortunate in possessing the regard of William III., who had known him in Holland, and took much pleasure in his company. Devoted to the enjoyment of the present, and availing himself moderately of every source of social pleasure, he retained his faculties, mental and bodily, to the last, and died in his ninety-first year, September 20, 1703.
St. Evremond was one of those who, aiming chiefly at success in society, leave no memorials sufficient to sustain the reputation which they have enjoyed in life. He possessed however extensive reading and an independent and acute judgment, as well as wit. His verses are deservedly forgotten ; and his treatises un Roman literature and on the modern drama, though ranked among his best works, are probably seldom read. His letters are among the most brilliant specimens of that style of composition in which the French have excelled. He appears to have been a disbeliever in revealed religion, but be was not a scoffer, and he checked wanton insult to religion in others. Ile never authorised the publication of his works, so that the earlier editions, which were all pirated, contain much that was foisted in by the booksellers to profit by his popularity. The first correct edition is that of Des Maizeaux, 3 vols. 4to, Loud., 1705, with a life prefixed, from manuscripts revised by the author and editor jointly, shortly before the death of the former. Des Maizeaux also translated the whole into English.