CREBILLON

crebillon, prosper jolyot de (1674-1762), french tragic poet, was born on the 13th of january 1674 at dijon, where his father, melchior jolyot, was notary-royal. having been educated at the jesuits' school of the town, and at the college mazarin, he became an advocate, and was placed in the office of a lawyer named prieur at paris. with the encouragement of his master, son of an old friend of scarron's, he produced a _mort des enfants de brutus_, which, however, he failed to bring upon the stage. but in 1705 he succeeded with _idomenee_; in 1707 his _atree et thyeste_ was repeatedly acted at court; _electre_ appeared in 1709; and in 1711 he produced his finest play, the _rhadamiste et zenobie_, which is his masterpiece and held the stage for a long period, although the plot is so complicated as to be almost incomprehensible. but his _xerxes_ (1714) was only once played, and his _semiramis_ (1717) was an absolute failure. in 1707 crebillon had married a girl without fortune, who had since died, leaving him two young children. his father also had died, insolvent. his three years' attendance at court had been fruitless. envy had circulated innumerable slanders against him. oppressed with melancholy, he removed to a garret, where he surrounded himself with a number of dogs, cats and ravens, which he had befriended; he became utterly careless of cleanliness or food, and solaced himself with constant smoking. but in 1731, in spite of his long seclusion, he was elected member of the french academy; in 1735 he was appointed royal censor; and in 1745 mme de pompadour presented him with a pension of 1000 francs and a post in the royal library. he returned to the stage in 1726 with a successful play, _pyrrhus_; in 1748 his _catilina_ was played with great success before the court; and in 1754, when he was eighty years old, appeared his last tragedy, _le triumvirat_. crebillon died on the 17th of june 1754. the enemies of voltaire maintained that crebillon was his superior as a tragic poet. the spirit of rivalry thus provoked induced voltaire to take the subjects of no less than five of crebillon's tragedies--_semiramis_, _electre_, _catilina_, _le triumvirat_, _atree_--as subjects for tragedies of his own. the so-called _eloge de crebillon_ (1762), really a depreciation, which appeared in the year of the poet's death, is generally attributed to voltaire, though he strenuously denied the authorship. crebillon's drama is marked by a force too often gained at the expense of scenes of unnatural horror; his pieces show lack of culture and a want of care which displays itself even in the mechanism of his verse, though fine isolated passages are not infrequent. there are numerous editions of his works, among which may be noticed: _oeuvres_ (1772), with preface and "eloge," by joseph de la porte; _oeuvres_ (1828), containing d'alembert's _eloge de crebillon_ (1775); and _theatre complet_ (1885) with a notice by auguste vitu. a complete bibliography is given by maurice dutrait, in his _etude sur la vie et le theatre de crebillon_ (1895). his only son, claude prosper jolyot crebillon (1707-1777), french novelist, was born at paris on the 14th of february 1707. his life was spent almost entirely in paris, but the publication of _l'ecumoire, ou tanzai et neadarne, histoire japonaise_ (1734), which contained veiled attacks on the bull _unigenitus_, the cardinal de rohan and the duchesse du maine, brought crebillon into disgrace. he was first imprisoned and afterwards forced to live in exile for five years at sens and elsewhere. with alexis piron and charles colle he founded in 1752 the gay society which met regularly to dine at the famous "caveau," where many good stories were elaborated. from 1759 onwards he was to be found at the wednesday dinners of the pelletier, at which garrick, sterne and wilkes were sometimes guests. he married in 1748 an english lady of noble family, lady henrietta maria stafford, who had been his mistress from 1744. their life is said to have been passed in much affection and mutual fidelity; and there could be no greater contrast than that between crebillon's private life and the tone of his novels, the immorality of which lent irony to the author's tenure of the office of censor, bestowed on him in 1759 through the favour of mme de pompadour. he died in paris on the 12th of april 1777. the most famous of his numerous novels are: _les amours de zeokinizul, roi des kofirans_ (1740), in which "zeokinizul" and "kofirans" may be translated louis xiv. and the french respectively; and _le sopha, conte moral_ (1740), where the moral is supplied in the title only. this last novel is given by some authorities as the reason for his imprisonment. his _oeuvres_ were collected and printed in 1772. see a notice of crebillon prefixed to o. uzanne's edition of his _contes dialogues_ in the series of _conteurs du xviii^e siecle_. crebillon's novels might be pronounced immoral to the last degree if it were not that two writers slightly later in date surpassed even his achievements in this particular. andre robert de nerciat (1739-1800) produced under a false name a number of licentious tales, and was followed by donatien, marquis de sade. creche (fr. for a "crib" or cradle), the name given to a day-nursery, a public institution for the feeding and care of infants while the mothers are engaged in work outside their homes, or are otherwise prevented from giving them proper attention. infants are usually admitted when over a month old, and are kept till they are capable of looking after themselves. the advantages of such institutions are that the attention of skilled and trained nurses is given to the children, the food is better and more adapted to their needs than that given in their homes, the surroundings are cleaner and healthier, and habits of discipline and cleanliness are instilled, which, in many cases, react on the mothers. the nurseries are usually under medical supervision, and the small fees charged, which average in london from 3d. to 4d. a day, and on the continent of europe about 2d., are much less than the cost to the mother who places her young children under the care of neighbours when at work or away from home. institutions of this kind were started in france in 1844, and have been established in the majority of the large towns on the continent of europe. in the industrial centres of france and germany they have helped to check infantile mortality. the state or municipality in nearly every case grants subsidies, but few are maintained entirely by public authorities; voluntary contributions are depended upon for the main support, and the organization and management are left in the hands of private societies and charitable institutions, although some outside official supervision with regard to the number of infants admitted to each institution, air-space, and ventilation and general hygienic conditions is considered useful. in great britain the establishment of such institutions has been left almost entirely to private initiative; and in comparison with the continent the provision is inadequate and unsatisfactory, paris having nearly double the proportion of accommodation for infants to the population that is provided in london. the national society of day nurseries was founded in 1901 for the purpose of providing a bureau where information may be found of good methods of founding and managing a creche. see the _report of the consultative committee upon the school attendance of children below the age of five_, issued by the board of education (1908). crecy (cressy), a town of northern france, in the department of somme, on the maye, 12 m. n. by e. of abbeville by road. it is famous in history for the great victory gained here on the 26th of august 1346 by the english under edward iii. over the french of king philip of valois. after its campaign in northern france, the english army retired into ponthieu, and encamped on the 25th of august at crecy, the french king in the meantime marching from abbeville on braye. early on the 26th edward's army took up its position for battle, and philip's, hearing of this, moved to attack him, though the french army marched in much disorder, and on arrival formed only an imperfect line of battle. the english lay on the forward slope of a hillside, with their right in front of the village of crecy, their left resting on wadicourt. two of the three divisions or "battles" were in first line, that of the young prince of wales (the black prince) on the right, that of the earls of northampton and arundel on the left; the third, under the king's own command, in reserve, and the baggage was packed to the rear. each battle consisted of a centre of dismounted knights and men-at-arms, and two wings of archers. the total force was 3900 men-at-arms, 11,000 english archers, and 5000 welsh light troops (froissart, first edition, the second gives a different estimate). the french were far stronger, having at least 12,000 men-at-arms, 6000 mercenary crossbowmen (genoese), perhaps 20,000 of the _milice des communes_, besides a certain number of foot of the feudal levy. along with these served a luxemburg contingent of horse under john, king of bohemia, and other feudatories of the holy roman empire, and the whole force was probably about 60,000 strong. [illustration: crecy (map of the battle)] the day was far advanced when the french came upon the english position. philip, near estrees, decided to halt and bivouac, deferring the battle until the army was better closed up, but the indiscipline of his army committed him to an immediate action, and he ordered forward the genoese crossbowmen, while a line of men-at-arms deployed for battle behind them; the rest of the army was still marching in an irregular column of route along the road from abbeville. a sudden thunderstorm caused a short delay, then the archers and the crossbowmen opened the battle. here, for the first time in continental warfare, the english long-bow proved its worth. after a brief contest the crossbowmen, completely outmatched, were driven back with enormous loss. thereupon the first line of french knights behind them charged down upon the "faint-hearted rabble" of their own fugitives, and soon the first two lines of the french were a mere mob of horse and foot struggling with each other. the archers did not neglect the opportunity, and shot coolly and rapidly into the helpless target in front of them. the second attack was made by another large body of knights which had arrived, and served but to increase the number of the casualties, though here and there a few charged up to the english line and fell near it, among them the blind king of bohemia, who with a party of devoted knights penetrated, and was killed amongst, the ranks of the prince of wales's men-at-arms. the battle was now one long series of desperate but ill-conducted charges, a fresh onslaught being made as each new corps of troops appeared on the scene. the english archers on the flanks of the two first line battles had been wheeled up, the centres of dismounted men-at-arms held back, so that the whole line resembled a "herse" or harrow with three points formed by the archers (see sketch). each successive body of the french sought to come to close quarters with the men-at-arms, and exposed themselves therefore at short range to the arrows on either flank. under these circumstances there could be but one issue of the battle. though sixteen distinct attacks were made, and the fighting lasted until long after dark, no impression was made on the english line. at one moment the prince was so far in danger that his barons sent to the king for aid. even then edward was not disquieted and he sent a mere handful of knights to the prince's battle, saying, "let the boy win his spurs." the left battle of the english, hitherto somewhat to the rear, moved up into line with the prince, and the french attack slackened. by midnight the army of france was practically annihilated; 1542 men of gentle blood were left dead on the field and counted by edward's heralds, the losses of the remainder are unknown. some fifty of the victors fell in the battle. the story that the black prince adopted from the fallen king of bohemia the crest and motto now borne by the princes of wales lacks foundation (see john, king of bohemia). a memorial to the french and their allies was erected, by public subscription in france, luxemburg and bohemia, in 1905. see h. b. george, _battles of english history_ (london, 1895), and c. w. c. oman, _a history of the art of war; the middle ages_ (london, 1898).