FONTAINE, JEAN DE LA, was born in 1621 at Chateau-Thierry, where his father was Maitre dea Eaux et dea Forats. No great attention was paid to his education, and it is said that he did not display any sort of talent till he had attained the ago of twenty-two. Ilia genius was first called forth on his hearing read an ode by Malherbe, when he is reported to have exclaimed, " I also am a poet l" At first he took Malherbe for his model, hut afterwarda turned his attention to the works of Rabelais, Voiture, and Clement Mara. His father, delighted with his imitations of hie favourito authors, thought him a prodigy of poetic genius, and a relation advised him to study the classics. A translation of Terence's 'Eunuch,' published by La Fontaine in 1654, was the fruit of this advice. He was much delighted with the Italian authors, especially Machiavelli, whom he chiefly admired for his little novels. On the death of his father, he succeeded to his office, which he filled inefficiently, and took a wife, with whom he lived unhappily, and from whom he finally separated. In fact, he was of too indolent and improvident a dispo sition for any of the common avocations of life ; lie does not seem to have had any absolute vice, but to have gone on in his own lounging way without taking any interest in what was passing around him. In an epitaph on himself he describes his life as having bceu occupied with sleeping and doing nothing; in the latter category he evidently includes the writings of his poems, which he probably threw off when in a happy vein without giving himself any great exer tion. Some versea of La Fontaine happening to fall in the way of the exiled Duchess° de Bouillon, who was residing at Chateau Thierry, she caused the author to be introduced to her, and took him with her to Paris when she returned. Here the superintendeut Fouquet became his Mweenas, and placed his name on a list of pensions which he allowed to various persons of merit. On the exile of this minister La Fontaine wrote a pathetic elegy. Though many distinguished persons honoured him with their patronage, his ignorance of the world and his habitual carelessness would have plunged him auto difficulties had not a liberal lady, Madame Sabliere, taken him into her house, where he resided for twenty years in perfect tranquillity. A well-known story gives a good idea of La Fontaiue's quiet lazy disposition. Madame Sabli?re having had occa sion to part with her servants, said to a friend, " I have now got rid of all my animals but three—my dog, my cat, and La Fontaine." In 1664 he was received into the Academy as successor to Colbert, not wlthont opposition from the graver sort, on account of the licentiousness of some of his works. However he triumphed over
Boileau, who was the rival candidate. The king, iudignant at this, delayed giving assent to his admission, but on the death of M. L'ezona, and the election of Boileau to fill his place, the king expressed his approbation of the choice of La Fontaine. On the death of hia benefactress, La Fontaiue was again reduced to difficulties, and would have been forced to accept an offer of St. Evremond to take him to England, had not the Duke of Burgundy assisted him. In 1692, when ho became seriously ill, the Abbd Pougit paid him a visit to attend to his spiritual welfare. La Fontaine submitted to the dictates of the Oka, though he was somewhat restive on two poiuta. In tha first place, the abbe demanded a public apology for his licentious tales ; in the second, n solemn promise not to give to the actors a comedy which he had written. lie made the required apology, but he applied to the Sorbonne before he yielded to the second demand ; however, receiving an unfavourable answer, he committed the comedy to the flames. In I693 La Fontaine because worse, and was oven reported dead ; but he recovered, and devoted himself to a translation of the hymns of the church and other religious works. He would now have been almost alone in the world, if a friend, M. D'Hervart, had not kindly offered him an asylum in his own house. He died in 1695.
The works by which La Fontaine is known are his Tales and his Fables. The former have a very equivocal set of readers, and are seldom mentioued in society; the latter belong to that small class of works the reputation of which never fades, and which are almost as well known at present as they were in the 17th century. Innu merable are the editions of these fables, and great is the field they have offered for the ingenuity of artists in furnishing illustrations. To say nothing of the various unornamented editions, they appear in every variety of shape, from an 18mo with vignettes to a huge folio with large and elaborate plates. It is remarkable that La Fontaine never (or rarely) invented his subjects : his tales are taken from Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Ariosto, aud others ; his fables ar•e chiefly selected from .Esop. It is not the matter of his compositions, but the manner in which he tells a tale, that constitutes his merit. His narrative is marked by that ease aud grace which are to be perceived, not described. Curiosity will cause a reader to wade through a new story even when iudiffetently written; but a man who, by his mere manner of narrating, can make a vast number of readers peruse a series of narratives, with every incident of which they ar•e perfectly acquainted—must have talents great indeed.