dubbed their party in a parlour sometimes
"The Academy of Wit and Eloquence," and
sometimes " The Eminent Academy." Faret,
a friend of Malleville, was introduced at
Conrart's house in 1633, and he in his turn
obtained the admission of Desmarets and the
Abbé Bois-Robert; the latter a well-known
hanger-on and flatterer to Richelieu. The
Abbé took an opportunity of mentioning the
new Society to his great patron, who was
graciously pleased, in the following year, to offer
to the members his protection—a gift well
worth having—and to obtain letters for their
formal incorporation into a public body.
Serisay de Malleville, and another or two, opposed
the proposition; but the great majority of
the associates, Conrart included, were very
glad to accept Richelieu's offer; and
Bois-Robert was formally authorised to inform
his patron, " That the Society very humbly
thanked him for the great honour which he
had done it, in taking it under his protection,
and though they should not of themselves
have ventured to entertain so lofty an ambition
as being incorporated by a charter, and
were mightily surprised at his Eminence's
condescension, the members were willing to
submit themselves in all matters to his
guidance."

An active mind was now at work on their
behalf; and the gentlemen proceeded, at the
Cardinal's suggestion, to draw up a complete
code of regulations, by one of which they
professed, after the modern fashion of Academies,
to receive only a limited number: they would
have only forty members. They then also
adopted the new title, at once modest and
ambitious, of " The French Academy." In a
preliminary discourse—the composition, it is
believed, of de Malleville—the great object of
the new Academy's existence is laid down,
and its necessity is strongly urged. " Nothing
is wanting," says the orator, " to the felicity
of the French people, but that their language
should be rescued from out of the number of
barbarous tongues. Nearer to perfection
already, with all its numerous faults, than
any other living language, French may be
made to take the place of Latin, as the Latin
language took the place of Greek, if only
proper pains be spent upon it. It shall be
the object of the new Academicians to purge
out of it those impurities with which it has
become polluted in the mouths of the common
people and the hangers-on about the Court, by
quibbling lawyers, by corrupt writers, and in
the pulpits of dull priests, who make the very
Gospel ludicrous by the barbarous phraseology
in which they preach it."

The Letters Patent of the Academy were
signed on the second of January, 1635, and
the Chancellor, Peter Séguier, when he affixed
his seal to the charter, paid the Academy the
compliment of desiring to be entered on its
list of members. Montmart, Master of Requests
du Chastelet, and Bautru, Counsellor
of State—the former a man still honourably
remembered in French literature, and the
latter a well-known wit and buffoon in the
train of Anne of Austria—together with
Servien, the King's secretary, followed the
lead of the Chancellor. Soon afterwards the
great Cardinal sanctioned the statutes; but
of course cancelled one of them, by which the
members bound themselves and their
successors "to reverence the virtue and blessed
memory of his Eminence." One formality,
however, was still wanting. It was requisite
for the complete constitution of the Society
that it should be registered by the parliament
of Paris; and at this stage, as had been the
case with the Academy of Bayfius, great
difficulty was experienced. It was not until after
a delay of two years and a half, during which
time three thunder-and-lightning letters had
been written by the King to the recalcitrant
counsellors, and a world of menaces set moving
by the Cardinal, that the consent of parliament
could be obtained. When given, it was
exceedingly ungracious, and it was expressly
stipulated that the Academicians should add
to their statutes one more article, by which
they bound themselves to take cognizance of
no other matters than the embellishing and
enriching the French language, and to sit in
judgment upon no books save such as were
written by their own members, or by authors
who should willingly submit themselves to
Academic discipline.

The Academy at length having been fairly
launched, its first step was to nominate a
director and a chancellor—both for short
periods only—and a secretary, who was to
retain office for life. The latter appointment
was, of course, unanimously conferred upon
the hospitable and industrious founder of the
feast of reason, Conrart, who continued to
hold it for upwards of forty years. A smart
fire of jokes formed the salute of Paris to
the new association. The better to maintain
the visible respectability of the members,
many of whom were in very needy
circumstances, each of them was endowed by
Richelieu with an annual pension of about
eighty guineas. It was found out, in an hour
lucky to all dealers in sarcasm, that the
salaries of the Academicians were defrayed
out of a fund of forty times eighty guineas
that had been created to pay the expense of
scavengers' work in the streets of Paris. Some
of the first acts of the Academy were indeed
very little calculated to inspire the public
with respect. The " Cid," a tragedy by the
immortal Corneille, which the author had
submitted to its decision, was unscrupulously
condemned; Chapelaine, a rival playwright
whom the world has forgotten, being
appointed, at Richelieu's instigation, to draw up
an unfavourable report.

Mazarine, the successor of Richelieu, a
patron more to art than literature, took but
little interest in the Academy. But the
distinguished favour of Louis the Fourteenth
made ample amends, a few years later, for the