which was received with general commendation; and though Hadrian Valesius, in his preface to the Valesiana, notes several mistakes in it, it is nevertheless a very excellent and useful work. It was afterwards enlarged by the addition of more volumes; and the edition of Paris, by Carpentier, in 1733, makes no less than six in folio; to which Carpentier afterwards added four of supplement. Both have been since excellently abridged, consolidated, and improved, in 6 vols. 8vo, published at Halle, 1772-1784. His next performance was a "Greek Glossary of the middle age," consisting of curious passages and remarks, most of which are drawn from manuscripts very little known. This work is in 2 vols. folio. He was the author and editor also of several other performances. He drew a genealogical map of the kings of France. He wrote the history of Constantinople under the French emperors, which was printed at the Louvre, and dedicated to the king. He published an historical tract concerning John Baptist's head, some relics of which are supposed to be at Amiens. He published, lastly, editions of Cinnamus, Nicephorus, Anna Commena, Zonaras, and the Alexandrian Chronicon, with learned dissertations and notes.

Du Cange, as he is more commonly called, died in 1688, aged seventy-eight; and left four children, on whom Louis XIV. settled good pensions, in consideration of their father's merit.

Though the general merits and abilities of this profound and accurate etymologist have been often recorded, Dr. Burney pays tribute to his memory for the assistance which he has frequently afforded musical historians, when all other resources failed. In the slow progress of the art of music from the time of Guido, whose labours were wholly devoted to the facilitating the study of canto fermo by the monks and choristers; in the glossary "De la Basse Latinité," 6 volumes folio, we find the derivation and early use of musical terms and phrases, particularly in

At

take, and positively assured them that the manuscript was in the trunk. length, one of them having viewed with great attention some of these scraps of paper, he discovered some observations which he knew to be the work of Du Cange. He found, too, that it was not impossible to place them in order, because at the beginning of every word which the learned author

undertook to explain, he had ranged them alphabetically. With this key, and the knowledge he had of the extensive erudition of Mr. Du Cange, he did not hesitate a moment to bid money for the trunk and the riches it contained. The treaty was concluded without further explanation; and such was the origin of the famous "Glossarium Media & infimæ Latinitatis."

France and neighbouring states; and there is scarcely a term connected with the music of the church, of which an early use may not be found, either in this Glossary, or in its continuation by Carpentier, 4 vols. folio.'

His

FRESNOY (CHARLES ALPHONSUS DU), a celebrated French poet and painter, was born at Paris in 1611. father, who was an eminent apothecary in that city, intended him for the medical profession, and during the first year which he spent at college, he made very considerable progress in his studies; but as soon as he was raised to the highest classes, and began to contract a taste for poetry, his genius for it appeared, and he carried all the prizes of it, which were proposed to excite the emulation of his fellow-students. His inclination for poetry was heightened by exercise; and his earliest performances shewed that he was capable of attaining very considerable fame in this pursuit, if his love of painting, which equally possessed him, had not divided his time and application. At last he laid aside all thoughts of the study of physic, and declared absolutely for that of painting, notwithstanding the opposition of his parents, who by all kinds of severity endeavoured to divert him from pursuing that art, the profession of which they unjustly considered in a very contemptible light. But the strength of his inclination defeating all the measures taken to suppress it, he took the first opportunity of cultivating his favourite study.

He was nineteen or twenty years of age when he began to learn to design under Francis Perier, and having spent two years in the school of that painter, and of Simon Vouet, he thought proper to take a journey into Italy, where he arrived at the end of 1633, or the beginning of 1634. As he had during his studies, applied himself very much to that of geometry, he began upon his coming to Rome to paint landscapes, buildings, and ancient ruins. But, for the first two years residence in that city, he had the utmost difficulty to support himself, being abandoned by his parents, who resented his having rejected their advice in the choice of his profession; and the little stock of money which he had provided before he left France, proving scarce sufficient for the expences of his journey to Italy. Being destitute therefore of friends and acquaintance at Rome, he was reduced to such distress, that

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist. in Cange.-Chaufepie.—Saxii Onomast.

his chief subsistence for the greatest part of that time was bread, and a small quantity of cheese. But he diverted the sense of uneasy circumstances by an intense and indefatigable application to painting, until the arrival of the celebrated Peter Mignard, who had been the companion of his studies under Vouet, set him more at ease. They immediately engaged in the strictest friendship, living together in the same house, and being commonly known at Rome by the name of the INSEPARABLES. They were employed by the cardinal of Lyons in copying all the best pieces in the Farnese palace. But their principal study was the works of Raffaelle and other great masters, and the antiques; and they were constant in their attendance every evening at the academy, in designing after models. Mignard had superior talents in practice; but Du Fresnoy was a great master of the rules, history, and theory of his profession. They communicated to each other their remarks and sentiments; Du Fresnoy furnishing his friend with noble and excellent ideas, and the latter instructing the former to paint with greater expedition and ease.

Poetry shared with painting the time and thoughts of Du Fresnoy, who, as he penetrated into the secrets of the latter art, wrote down his observations; and having at last acquired a full knowledge of the subject, formed a design of writing a poem upon it, which he did not finish till many years afterwards, when he had consulted the best writers, and examined with the utmost care the most admired pictures in Italy. While he resided there he painted several pictures, particularly the "Ruins of the Campo Vaccino," with the city of Rome in the figure of a woman: a young woman of Athens going to see the monument of her lover, &c. One of his best pieces is" Mars finding Lavinia sleeping." He had a peculiar esteem for the works of Titian, several of which he copied, imitating that excellent painter in his colouring, as he did Caracci in his designs. About 1653 he went to Venice, and travelled through Lombardy, after which he returned to France. He had read his poem to the best painters in all places through which he passed, and particularly to Albano and Guercino, then at Bologna, and he consulted several men famous for their skill in polite literature. He arrived at Paris in 1656, where he painted several pictures, and continued to revise his poem, on which he bestowed so much attention as frequently to interrupt his professional la

bours. But, though he was desirous to see his work published, he thought it improper to print the Latin without a French translation, which was at length made by De Piles. Du Fresnoy had just begun a commentary upon it, when he was seized with a palsy; and after languishing four or five months under it, died at the house of one of his brothers, at Villiers-le-bel, four leagues from Paris, in 1665. From the time of Mignard's return to Paris in 1658, the two friends continued to live together until death separated them.

His poem was not published till three years after his death, at Paris, 12mo, with the French version, and remarks of Mons. Du Piles, and it has been justly admired for its elegance, perspicuity, and the utility of the instruction it contains. In 1694, Dryden made a prose translation of it into English, which he accompanied with his ingenious parallel between poetry and painting. It was again translated into English by Mr. Wills, a painter, who gave it in metre without rhyme. He attempted to produce the sense of his author in an equal number of lines, and thus cramped his own skill; and produced a work unequal in itself, in which, however well he appears to have understood the original text, he fails to impress it on his reader. It is now almost totally forgotten. More ample justice has been done in our language to the talents of Du Fresnoy, by our late skilful poet, William Mason, M. A.; by whom, in 1782, he was first clothed in an English dress suited to his elevated pretensions. And still greater honour was done to him by the hand of that extraordinary genius of our isle in the art of painting, sir Joshua Reynolds, for whose more valuable remarks upon the most important points in the poem, Mr. Mason was induced to discard those of Mons. Du Piles. By the union of the talents of two men so renowned in the arts of poetry and painting, Du Fresnoy is rendered for ever dear to the English reader; and the thorough knowledge he has exhibited of the best principles of the art of painting, is become more agreeably and more extensively diffused.'

FRESNY (CHARLES RIVIERE DU), a French poet, chiefly celebrated for his dramatic writings, was born at Paris in 1648. He had a good natural taste for music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and all the fine arts. He had

1 Life prefixed to Mason's translation.—Moreri.—D'Argenville.

also a taste for laying-out.gardens, and this procured him the place of overseer of gardens to the king, which he sold for a moderate sum, as a supply to his extravagance, which was unbounded. He was valet-de-chambre to Louis XIV. and highly in favour with him; but his love of expence outwent even the bounty of his master. "There are two men," said Louis, "whom I shall never enrich, Fresny and Bontems." These were his two valets-dechambre, who were well matched in extravagance. At length, Fresny sold all his appointments at court, and flew from the constraint of Versailles to the liberty of Paris, where he became a writer for the stage. He is the person who is humourously represented by Le Sage in his "Diable Boiteux," as marrying his laundress by way of paying her bill. He was twice married, and both times, it is said, in a similar way. He wrote many dramatic pieces, some of which were long established on the stage. These were, "La Reconciliation Normande, Le Double Voyage, La Coquette de Village, Le Marriage rompu, L'Esprit de Contradiction, Le Dedit." He was also the author of cantatas, which he set to music himself; several songs, some of which were famous; a little work often reprinted, called "Les Amusements serieux et comiques," and "Nouvelles Historiques ;" all enlivened by a singular and gay fancy. He died, aged seventy-six, in 1724. D'Alembert has drawn a parallel between Destouches and him as comic writers. His works were collected in 6 volumes, duodecimo.1

FREYTAG (FREDERIC GOTTHILF), an eminent literary historian, was the son of a learned schoolmaster, who is very highly celebrated by Ernesti, and was born at Schulpforten, in 1723. All we know of his personal history is, that he studied law, and became a burgomaster of Nuremberg, where he died in 1776. His principal writings are, 1. "Rhinoceros veterum scriptorum monumentis descriptus," Leipsic, 1747, 8vo. 2." Analecta literaria de Libris rarioribus," ibid. 1750, 8vo. 3. "Oratorum ac Rhetorum Græcorum, quibus statuæ honoris causa positæ fuerunt, decas," ibid. 1752. 4. "Adparatus litterarius, ubi libri partim antiqui partim rari recensentur," ibid. 1752-1755, 3 vols. 8vo. This is a continuation of the "Analecta literaria," and both are of the highest value to bibliographers. They 1 Dict. Hist.-Niceròn, vol. XVII.-Moreri.