ANECDOTES OF CELEBRATED AUTHORS, FRENCH AND ITALIAN.


Crebillon's manner of life was extremely singular. He slept little, and
lay very hard; he was always surrounded with about thirty cats and dogs;
and used to smoke tobacco, to keep his room sweet against their
exhalations. Being one day asked, in a large company, which of his works
he thought the best? "I don't know," answered he, "which is my best
production; but this (pointing to his son, who was present) is certainly
my worst." "It is," replied the son, with vivacity, "because no
Carthusian had a hand in it," alluding to the report that the best
passages in his father's tragedies had been written by a Carthusian
friar, who was his friend.

Molieres, the celebrated French priest and mathematician, was a very
irritable man, which led him frequently into passions, of which one was
the cause of his death in 1742. In other respects he was reckoned a very
amiable character; but was apt to be so absent, or absorbed in his
studies, as to appear almost wholly insensible to surrounding objects.
His infirmity in this respect became known, and he was accordingly made
the subject of depredations. A shoe-black once finding him profoundly
absorbed in a reverie, contrived to steal the silver buckles from his
shoes, replacing them with iron ones. At another time, while at his
studies, a villain broke into the room in which he was sitting, and
demanded his money; Molieres, without rising from his studies, or giving
any alarm, coolly showed him where it was, requesting him, as a great
favour, that he would not derange his papers.

Ariosto, the celebrated Italian poet, being asked why he had not built
his house in a more magnificent manner, and more suitable to the noble