LA FONTAINE, JEAN DE (1621-95). A French poet, noted for his tales (Conics) and fables. He was born at ChAteau-Thierry. in Champagne. July 8. 1621, of good though not noble family, for his father was a superintend ent of streams and forests. Jean began to study for the priesthood, but, with the dreamy irrespon sibility that characterized his life. he forsook this career after eighteen months, and, though the father resigned in Jean's favor (1643) and even provided him with a wife. the fifteen-year-old Wricart (1647), his life was still that of a happy-go-lucky idler. La Fontaine's poetic talent was awakened by the reading of Malherbe and Racal'. For his amusement he adapted Un successfully the Eunuchus of Terence (1654). and by dedicating a narrative poem, Adonis. to Fouquet (1658). he won the patronage of the then powerful Minister, who received him into his household. On Fouquet's fall he had as suc cessive patronesses the Duchess of Bouillon (1662). the Duchess of Orleans (1667), Madame de In Sal)liere (1671), and :Madame d'Hervart (1693). To please the first of these, he began to write Conies et nourellcs en rcrs (1665). To these he added at intervals until his election to the Academy (1683). which the King had sanctioned only on his promise to be 'proper' (sage); for the Conics as a rule were not. The Fables, whose humor was quite without such Gallic spice, La Fontaine had begun to write in 166S, and in 1671 had given further illus tration of his versatile talent as editor of a volume of mystically religious verse. He wrote also in this, his most productive period, Les amours de Cupid ct Psyche (1669), an epic La captirite de Saint Maio (1673), and the Poime du Quinquina (1682). with several slight if not weak comedies collected in 1702. In his last year (1695) he seems to have become sincerely religious. La Fontaine was a spoiled child of nature, simply guileless and carelessly absent minded, exasperating the friends who tolerated and could not but love him. Racine, Boileau, and
3(oliere were his closest intimates, but Moliere alone realized the permanent value of his work in the development of French literature, through the Conies, and especially through the Fables. The former are essentially fabliaux (q.v.), most skillfully told and with a delicate feeling for style and prosody that conceals the highest art under its apparent spontaneity. Here La Fon taine is the follower of La Salle, Des P6riers, and the Heptamcron, the imitator of Boccaccio and the Italian story-tellers, none of whom rec ognized what are now regarded as fundamental conventions of decency. The poet was assailed by contemporary adversaries on the score of impropriety. The Fables, on the other hand, could shock no reader's modesty, though they reveal a total incapacity for moral indignation, and a boundless tolerance of the 'natural.' The grace ful liveliness of their narration, the restrained naturalism of their description, the homely wis dom of their unobtruded moral, the boldness of their covert political teaching, especially in later rears, the shrewd analysis and observation of human motive, has been a perennial delight to generations. The fact that every French school boy knew the Fables influenced and aided the emancipation of poetry by the Romantic School of 1830. In mind La Fontaine is akin to Moliere. None of his imitators has approached him, and with INIoliere he is the most widely liked French writer of the seventeenth century. La Fontaine's works are in many editions. The most elaborate is by Replier (9 vols.. Paris. 1888-92). Useful also are those of Moland (7 vols.. Paris, 1872-76) and Marty-Laveaux (5 vols., Paris. 1857-77). Regnier's edition has a good biography by Mes nard. Consult, also Lafenestre, La Fontaine (Paris, ]SS5) ; Taine, La Fontaine et scs fables (15th ed., ib., 1901) ; and for further bibliog graphy, Brunetie•e. Manuel de l'hisioire de la littt'rature fraacaisc (ib., 1S97) translated by Dercehef (London, 1898).