LE MAIRE DE BELGES

le maire de belges, jean (1473-c. 1525), french poet and historiographer, was born at bavai in hainault. he was a nephew of jean molinet, and spent some time with him at valenciennes, where the elder writer held a kind of academy of poetry. le maire in his first poems calls himself a disciple of molinet. in certain aspects he does belong to the school of the _grands rhetoriqueurs_, but his great merit as a poet is that he emancipated himself from the affectations and puerilities of his masters. this independence of the flemish school he owed in part perhaps to his studies at the university of paris and to the study of the italian poets at lyons, a centre of the french renascence. in 1503 he was attached to the court of margaret of austria, duchess of savoy, afterwards regent of the netherlands. for this princess he undertook more than one mission to rome; he became her librarian and a canon of valenciennes. to her were addressed his most original poems, _epistres de l'amand verd_, the _amant vert_ being a green parrot belonging to his patroness. le maire gradually became more french in his sympathies, eventually entering the service of anne of brittany. his prose _illustrations des gaules et singularitez de troye_ (1510-1512), largely adapted from benoit de sainte more, connects the burgundian royal house with hector. le maire probably died before 1525. etienne pasquier, ronsard and du bellay all acknowledged their indebtedness to him. in his love for antiquity, his sense of rhythm, and even the peculiarities of his vocabulary he anticipated the _pleiade_. his works were edited in 1882-1885 by j. stecher, who wrote the article on him in the _biographie nationale de belgique_. lemaitre, francois elie jules (1853- ), french critic and dramatist, was born at vennecy (loiret) on the 27th of april 1853. he became a professor at the university of grenoble, but he had already become known by his literary criticisms, and in 1884 he resigned his position to devote himself entirely to literature. he succeeded j. j. weiss as dramatic critic of the _journal des debats_, and subsequently filled the same office on the _revue des deux mondes_. his literary studies were collected under the title of _les contemporains_ (7 series, 1886-1899), and his dramatic _feuilletons as impressions de theatre_ (10 series, 1888-1898). his sketches of modern authors are interesting for the insight displayed in them, the unexpectedness of the judgments and the gaiety and originality of their expression. he published two volumes of poetry: _les medaillons_ (1880) and _petites orientales_ (1883); also some volumes of _contes_, among them _en marge des vieux livres_ (1905). his plays are: _revoltee_ (1889), _le depute leveau_, and _le mariage blanc_ (1891), _les rois_ (1893), _le pardon_ and _l'age difficile_ (1895), _la massiere_ (1905) and _bertrade_ (1906). he was admitted to the french academy on the 16th of january 1896. his political views were defined in _la campagne nationaliste_ (1902), lectures delivered in the provinces by him and by g. cavaignac. he conducted a nationalist campaign in the _echo de paris_, and was for some time president of the ligue de la patrie francaise, but resigned in 1904, and again devoted himself to literature.