Library of the Worlds Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 6 | Page 2

My Last Duchess Up at a Villa--Down
in the City In Three Days In a Year Evelyn Hope Prospice The Patriot
One Word More
ORESTES AUGUSTUS BROWNSON 1803-1876 2594
Saint-Simonism ('The Convert')
FERDINAND BRUNETIÈRE 1849- 2603 BY ADOLPHE COHN
Taine and Prince Napoleon The Literatures of France, England, and
Germany

GIORDANO BRUNO 1548-1600 2613 A Discourse of Poets ('The
Heroic Enthusiasts') Canticle of the Shining Ones: A Tribute to English
Women ('The Nolan') Song of the Nine Singers Of Immensity Life
Well Lost Parnassus Within Compensation Life for Song
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 1794-1878 2623 BY GEORGE
PARSONS LATHROP Thanatopsis The Crowded Street Death of the
Flowers The Conqueror's Grave The Battle-Field To a Water-fowl
Robert of Lincoln June To the Fringed Gentian The Future Life To the
Past
JAMES BRYCE 1838- 2643 Position of Women in the United States
('The American Commonwealth') Ascent of Ararat ('Trans-Caucasia
and Ararat') The Work of the Roman Empire ('The Holy Roman
Empire')
FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND 1826-1880 2661 A Hunt in a
Horse-Pond ('Curiosities of Natural History') On Rats (same) Snakes
and their Poison (same) My Monkey Jacko (same)
HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE 1821-1862 2673 Moral versus
Intellectual Principles in Human Progress ('History of Civilization in
England') Mythical Origin of History (same)
GEORGE LOUIS LE CLERC BUFFON 1707-1788 2689 BY
SPENCER TROTTER Nature ('Natural History') The Humming-Bird
(same)
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON 1803-1873 2697 BY JULIAN
HAWTHORNE The Amphitheatre ('The Last Days of Pompeii')
Kenelm and Lily ('Kenelm Chillingly')

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME VI
PAGE

"Les Satyres" (Colored Plate) Frontispiece Charlotte Bronté (Portrait)
2382 Phillips Brooks (Portrait) 2418 "The Holy Child of Bethlehem"
(Photogravure) 2420 "Circe" (Photogravure) 2514 Robert Browning
(Portrait) 2558 William Cullen Bryant (Portrait) 2624 Edward
Bulwer-Lytton (Portrait) 2698 "In the Arena" (Photogravure) 2718
"Nydia" (Photogravure) 2720
VIGNETTE PORTRAITS
Abbé de Brantôme Fredrika Bremer Elisabeth Brentano John Bright
Brillat-Savarin Charles Brockden Brown John Brown Charles Farrar
Browne Sir Thomas Browne Elizabeth Barrett Browning Orestes
Augustus Brownson Ferdinand Brunetière James Bryce George Louis
le Clere Buffon

THE ABBÉ DE BRANTÔME
(PIERRE DE BOURDEILLE)
(1527-1614)
Every historian of the Valois period is indebted to Brantôme for
preserving the atmosphere and detail of the brilliant life in which he
moved as a dashing courtier, a military adventurer, and a gallant
gentleman of high degree. He was not a professional scribe, nor a
student; but he took notes unconsciously, and in the evening of his life
turned back the pages of his memory to record the scenes through
which he had passed and the characters which he had known. He has
been termed the "valet de chambre" of history; nevertheless the
anecdotes scattered through his works will ever be treasured by all
students and historians of that age of luxury and magnificence, art and
beauty, beneath which lay the fermentation of great religious and
political movements, culminating in the struggle between the
Huguenots and Catholics.
[Illustration: ABBÉ DE BRANTÔME]

Brantôme was the third son of the Vicomte de Bourdeille, a Périgord
nobleman, whose family had lived long in Guienne, and whose
aristocratic lineage was lost in myth. Upon the estate stood the Abbey
of Brantôme, founded by Charlemagne, and this Henry II. gave to
young Pierre de Bourdeille in recognition of the military deeds of his
brother, Jean de Bourdeille, who lost his life in service. Thereafter the
lad was to sign his name as the Reverend Father in God, Messire Pierre
de Bourdeille, Abbé de Brantôme. Born in the old château in 1527, he
was destined for the church, but abandoned this career for arms. At an
early age he was sent to court as page to Marguerite, sister of Francis I.
and Queen of Navarre; after her death in 1549, he went to Paris to study
at the University. His title of Abbé being merely honorary, he served in
the army under François de Guise, Duke of Lorraine, and became
Gentleman of the Chamber to Charles IX. His career extended through
the reigns of Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry
IV., to that of Louis XIII. With the exception of diplomatic missions,
service on the battle-field, and voyages for pleasure, he spent his life at
court.
About 1594 he retired to his estate, where until his death on July 15th,
1614, he passed his days in contentions with the monks of Brantôme, in
lawsuits with his neighbors, and in writing his books: 'Lives of the
Illustrious Men and Great Captains of France'; 'Lives of Illustrious
Ladies'; 'Lives of Women of Gallantry'; 'Memoirs, containing anecdotes
connected with the Court of France'; 'Spanish Rodomontades'; a 'Life'
of his father, François de Bourdeille; a 'Funeral Oration' on his sister
in-law; and a dialogue in verse, entitled 'The Tomb of Madame de
Bourdeille.' These were not published until long after his death, first
appearing in Leyden about 1665, at the