BENSERADE.
A Hint to Laureates.

Isaac de Benserade was one of the finest French wits of the seventeenth century. He made himself known to the court by his verses, and had the good fortune to please Cardinal Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarine; which was the means of making his fortune. I insert the following passage from a scarce book, entitled, “Arliquiniania.”

“Your story puts me in mind,” said Arlequin, “of a thing, which made Benserade’s fortune; I have it from himself. Were you acquainted with him?” “Yes,” said I, “I conversed with.

him till his death; he was the quickest wit, and the most zealous friend, that ever I saw; he was a good and gallant man, and I will tell you, one day, some particular things of him.” “ You know then,” replied Arlequin, “that Benserade, came young, agreeable, and full of merit, to court. He applied himself to Cardinal Mazarin, who liked him, but with such a friendship, as produced no advantage to him. Benserade, continuing to follow his genius, made gallant verses every day, which gained him a great reputation. The Cardinal, being one evening with the king, related to him after what manner he had lived in the Pope’s court, where he had spent his youth. He said, that he loved the sciences, but that his chief application had been to polite learning, and especially poetry, wherein he succeeded pretty well; and that he was, at the Pope’s court, what Benserade was at that of France. He soon after retired to his apartment. Benserade happened to come in an hour after; and his friends told him what the cardinal had said. They had scarce ended, when being filled with joy, he abruptly left them, without saying a word, and ran to the cardinal’s apartment, and knocked as hard as he could. The cardinal had just gone to bed; but Benserade was so pressing, and made so much noise, that they were obliged to let him in. He accordingly entered, fell on his knees by the bolster of his eminence’s bed, and, having begged a thousand pardons for his rudeness, he told him what he had heard, and thanked him, with inexpressible ardour, for the honour he had done him, in comparing himself to him, as to the reputation he had for poetry; adding, withal, that he was so proud of it, that he could not contain his joy, and that he should have died at his door, if he had been hindered from coming to pay him his acknowledgment. This zeal pleased the cardinal very much. He assured him of his protection, and promised him; that he would not be useless to him; and indeed, six days after, he sent him a small pension of two thousand livres; some time after, he obtained other considerable pensions on abbeys, and he might have been a bishop, if he would have been a churchman.”—Art. Benserade.