The Sun.
London, England, 1824-07-06 00:00:00

MALHERBE.

MR. EDITOR—You favoured us lately with
an anecdote of MALIIERDN, who is so cblebrated
a French Poet, that perhaps it would not be
disagreeable to your readers to see something
more about him. Ile was just that blunt, or what
his countrymen would say, frank character, which
the anecdote told of him in your paper proves
him. Another instance of his frankness was on
an occasion when some man of consequence and
rank brought some verses which he had composed
in praise of a lady, telling him, as he showed them,
that he had some private reasons for the compo.

Having read them, he asked him if he were con-
demned to write them, or to be hung ; otherwise,
said he, you should not expose your reputation
to such ridicule. The writer, who was conse-
quential, as well as a man of consequence, was
not a little offended, and such a scene past be-
tween them as might be the basis of the famous
scene in MOLIME'S Misantrope. When another
great man, no less than art Archbishop, had in-
vited him to hear him preach, he fell fast asleep
before he quitted the table, and when the Pre-
late wished to wake him that he might go with
him to the church, the Poet begged to be excused,
as he slept well enough without the sermon,
which was sure to be a good composition for
sleep, if it was good for nothing else.
An Oriental scholar was said in his presence
to understand the Punk tongue well enough to
translate the Pater into the language. Oh ! says
he, I will translate the credo, and he poured forth
a volley of barbarous words, just as they came
uppermost ; there, says he, is the Punic credo ;
who can prove the contrary ? One time, when he
wanted to punish a servant to whom he gave 10
sous a day and 20 crowns a year, he said to
him, Friend, when your master is offended, God
is, and when he is offended, to have absolution,
we must fast and do alms ; I shall therefore de-
tain 5 sons of your wages, which I shall give to
the poor in your name for the expiation of your
sins.

When he wished to fight a duel with a man
who had killed his son, and he was told what
madness it was for a man of seventy-five to
fight with a man who was only twenty-five,
on that account, he answered, I wish to fight,
because my stake is a farthing against a crown.
lie was particularly concerned for the purity of
his native language, so much, that an hour before
his death, after having been a long time strug-
gling with its attack, he sprung up, on a sudden
to correct a word which he did not think pure
French ; and when his Confessor was represent-
ing heaven in a low and beggarly style, and ask-
ed him whether he would not rejoice to taste
such pleasures ? Speak to me no more of them,
he exclaimed, your style disgusts me with them.
Your would-be politicians should be reminded
of one of his favourite apothegms :—" We must
not meddle with the management of a ship in
which we are only passengers."
Though MALUERBE was proud of his poetry,
he often repeated the same thoughts in his works,
and in reciting his verses he was in the constant
habit of spitting ; upon which a wag remarked,
that there never was a man more humorous, nor
a Poet more dry.

THAMKS TUNNEL.—The Act for this promising
and useful undertaking having received the Royal
Assent, the Gentlemen appointed by the Act to
be Directors have held their first meeting as
such, and the various preliminary matters pre-
scribed being completed, they have entered upon
their duties. At the close of the sitting they
adjourned to the Albion, where they partook of
an excellent dinner. Sir E. CODVINGTON, Bart.
in the Chair, in the absence of WILLIAM SMITH,
Esc. M.P. their Chairman,

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