lives, he printed, 12. " An answer to them," and inserted it in the journal des Savans of the 25th of June, and the 11th of July, 1718. 13. "Vies des hommes illuftres de Plu"tarque, &c. that is, Plutarch's lives of illuftrious men, "revised by the manufcripts, and tranflated into French, "with notes hiftorical and critical, and the fupplement of "those comparisons, which are loft. To which are added "thofe heads, which could be found, and a general index "of matters contained in the work." Paris, 1721, eight volumes in 4to Amfterdam, 1723, nine volumes in 8vo. This work was received with applaufe, and fuppofed to be well done; yet not fo, fay the authors of the Bibliotheque Françoife, as to make the world at once forget the tranflation of Amyot, obfolete as it is. Mr. Dacier published some other things of a leffer kind, as, 14. " Difcours, &c. A "fpeech made in the French academy, when he was ad"mitted into it in the room of mr. Harlay. 15. Anfwers, "which he made, as director of the academy, to the speech "of, mr. Coufin in 1697, and to that of mr. de Boze in

1715." These two pieces are inferted in the collections of the French academy. 16. " Differtation fur l'origine de "la fatyre, that is, Á differtation upon the origin of fatyr.' This is inferted in the fecond volume of the memoirs of the academy of belles lettres in 1717. 17. "Notes fur Lon

gin; that is, Notes upon Longinus." Boileau, in the preface to his tranflation of Longinus, ftiles these notes very learned; and fays, that "the author of them is not only a "man of very extenfive learning, and an excellent critic,

but likewife a gentleman of fingular politenefs, which is "fo much the more valuable, as it feldom attends great 66 learning." Boileau has added them to his own notes upon Longinus; and they are printed in all the editions of his works. Mr. Dacier wrote alfo a commentary upon Ode xxix. Theocritus, which he mentions in his notes upon Horace; and a fhort treatise upon religion, containing the reasons which brought him over to the church of Rome: but these two works were never printed.

He had a fhare in the "Hiftory of Lewis XIV. by me"dals"; and when it was finished, was chofen to present it to his majesty who, being informed of the pains which monfieur Dacier had taken in it, settled upon him a penfion of two thousand livres ; and about the fame time appointed him keeper of the books of the king's clofet in the Louvre. In the year 1713, he was made perpetual fecretary of the

French

French academy. In 1717, he obtained a grant in reverfion of ten thousand crowns upon his place of keeper of the books of the king's closet; and when this poft was united to that of library keeper to the king in 1720, he was not only continued in the privileges of his place during life, but the furvivance of it was granted to his wife; a favour, of which there had never been an inftance before. But her death hap-. pening firft, rendered this grant, fo honourable to her, ineffectual. Great as mr. Dacier's grief was for the loss of an help-mate fo like himself, it did not prevent him from seeking out another; and he had actually been married a fecond time, if death had not prevented him. He died upon the 18th of September 1722, of an ulcer in the throat; which he did not think at all dangerous, fince that very evening he was prefent at the academy. He was feventy-one years of age; fhort of ftature, and of a long and meagre visage. He was a great promoter of virtue and learning; and if he was fomewhat partial to antiquity, yet he is to be excused, because he had particularly ftudied those writers among the pagans, who had applied themselves with most fuccefs to the knowledge and regulation of the human mind. Confidered in this light, mr. Dacier is an author highly to be valued: for he chofe none but useful fubjects; devoted his labours to works only of importance; and enriched the French language with those remains of wife antiquity, which are most advantageous to the morals of mankind.

DACIER (ANNE) wife of Andrew Dacier, and daughter of Tanneguy le Fevre, profeffor of Greek at Saumur in France, was born in that city about the end of the year 1651. She was eleven years old, when her father refolved to give her a learned education: and the occafion of his taking fuch a refolution was this: while he was teaching one of his fons the rudiments of grammar, in the fame room where madamoifelle Le Fevre was employed with her needle, fhe, as a person wholly unconcerned, now and then supplied her brother with answers to queftions that puzzled him. Her father, difcovering her talents from thence, obliged her to a regular courfe of leffons, and brought her up a scholar. She went to Paris in 1673, the year after her father died; and was then engaged in an edition of Callimachus, which she publifhed in quarto in 1674. Some fheets of that work having been fhewn to monfieur Huet, preceptor to the dauphin, and other learned men at court, a propofal was

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made to her of publishing some Latin authors, for the use of the dauphin; which, though the rejected at firft, fhe at laft undertook, and published an edition of Florus in 1674 in quarto. Her reputation being now fpread over all Europe, Chriftina queen of Sweden ordered count Conigfmark to make her a compliment in her name; upon which madamoiselle Le Fevre fent the queen a Latin letter with her edition of Florus. Her majefty wrote her an obliging anfwer; and not long after wrote her another letter, to perfuade her to quit the proteftant religion, and made her confiderable offers to fettle at her court. This however she declined, and proceeded in the task she had undertaken, of publifhing authors for the ufe of the dauphin. Sextus Aurelius Victor came out under her care at Paris 1681 in quarto; in which fame year alfo fhe published a French translation of "The poems of Anacreon and Sappho with notes," which met with great applaufe; fo great, as to make monfieur Boileau declare, that it ought to deter any perfon from attempting to tranflate thofe poems into verfe. She publifhed, for the use of the dauphin, Eutropius at Paris 1683 in 4to, which was afterwards printed at Oxford 1696 in 8vo; and Dictys cretenfis et dares Phrygius, at Paris 1684 in 4to, which was afterwards printed, cum notis variorum, at Amfterdam 1702 in 8vo. She had also published French tranflations of "The Amphytrio, Epidicus, and Rudens, come"dies of Plautus," at Paris 1683 in three volumes 12m0; and of "The plutus and clouds of Ariftophanes," in 1684 in 12mo with notes, and an examen of all these plays according to the rules of the theatre. She was fo charmed with the Clouds of Aristophanes, it seems, that, as we learn from herself, the had read it over two hundred times with pleasure.

In the midst of all these various publications, fo close to each other, the found time to marry monfieur Dacier, with whom the had been brought up in her father's house from her earliest years. This happened, as we have already obferved in our account of that gentleman, in the year 1683; though fome have controverted not only the date, but even the marriage itself, and have furmifed, that she was previously married to one John Lefnier, a bookfeller of her father's, and that the run away from him for the fake of mr. Dacier, with whom fhe was never married in any regular way. We know not how to come at certainty in this matter, yet are inclined to reject the account, as not built upon any folid

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tom. iii.

P. 132.

foundation; fince it is hardly poffible to conceive, but that fo extraordinary a circumftance in the hiftory of fo celebrated a lady, muft, if it were true, have been notorious and incontefted. We are therefore apt to admit Father Niceron's folution of this difficulty; who obferves, upon the occafion, that "nothing is more common than for a perfon, who Memoirs ❝ abandons any party, to be expofed to the calumnies of pour fervir "thofe, whom they have quitted," and to fuffer by them. des hommes Now madam Dacier, foon after her marriage, declared to illuftres, the duke of Montaufier and the bifhop of Meaux, who had been her friends, a defign of reconciling herself to the church of Rome; but as monfieur Dacier was not yet convinced of the reasonablenefs of fuch a change, they thought proper to retire to Caftres in the year 1684, in order to examine the controverfy between the proteftants and papifts. They at laft determined in favour of the latter; and, as we have already obferved, made their public abjuration in September See art. An1685. This might probably occafion the abovementioned drew Da rumour, fo much to the disadvantage of madam Dacier; though we cannot affirm it did, or that there was at the bottom no better reafon for it. After their converfion, the duke of Montaufier and the bifhop of Meaux recommended them at court; and the king settled a pension of 1500 livres upon monfieur Dacier, and another of 500 upon his lady. The patent was expedited in November; and, upon the advice which they received of it, they returned to Paris, where they refumed their ftudies, and obliged the world with many valuable productions.

In the year 1688, madam Dacier published a French tranflation of Terence's comedies with notes, in three volumes 12mo. She is faid to have rose at five o'clock in the morning during a very sharp winter, and to have dispatched four of the comedies; but, upon looking them over fome months after, to have flung them into the fire, being much diffatisfied with them, and to have begun the tranflation again. She brought the work then to the highest perfection, and even reached the graces and noble fimplicity of the original. It was a circumftance greatly to her honour, that having taken the liberty to change the fcenes and acts, her difpofition of them was afterwards confirmed by an excellent manuscript in the king of France's library. The best and most finished edition of this univerfally admired performance, is that of 1717; which however was greatly improved afterwards, by adopting the emendations in dr. Bentley's edition

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of Terence. She had a hand in the tranflation of Marcus Antoninus, which her husband published in 1691, and likewife in the fpecimen of a tranflation of Plutarch's Lives, which he published three years after; but being defirous of publishing a tranflation of Homer, fhe left monfieur Dacier to finish that of Plutarch. In the year 1711, fhe published "The Iliad of Homer tranflated into French with notes", in three volumes 12mo; and the tranflation is reckoned elegant and faithful. In 1714, the published "Des causes de

la corruption du goute, that is, The causes of the corrup"tion of taste." This treatife was written against monfieur de la Mothe, who, in the preface to his Iliad, had declared very little efteem for that poem. Madam Dacier, ftocked with the liberty he had taken with her favourite author, immediately began this defence of him, in which she did not treat La Mothe with the greateft civility. This was the beginning of a literary war, which produced a great number of books in the course of it. In 1716, the publifhed "Homere defendu, &c. that is, A defence of Homer

against the apology of father Hardouin, or, a fequel of the "causes of the corruption of tafte:" in which the attempts to fhew, that father Hardouin, in endeavouring to apologize for Homer, has done him a greater injury, than ever he received from his moft declared enemies. Befides these two pieces, he had prepared a third against La Mothe; but fuppreffed it, after monfieur de Vallincourt had procured a reconciliation between them. The fame year alfo, she pubfifhed "The Odyffee of Homer tranflated from the French, " with notes," in three volumes 12mo; and this, as far as we can find, was the last thing the published. She was in a very infirm state of health, the two last years of her life; and died, after a very painful fickness, upon the 17th of Auguft, 1720, being fixty-nine years of age. She had two daughters and a fon, of whofe education fhe took the strictest care; but the fon died young; one of her daughters became a nun, and the other, who is faid to have had united in her all the virtues and accomplishments of her fex, died at eighteen years of age. Her mother has faid high things of her, in the preface to her translation of the Iliad.

Madam Dacier was a lady of great virtue as well as learning. She was remarkable for firmnefs, generofity, good nature and piety. Her modefty was fo great, that the never fpoke of fubjects of literature; and it was with fome difficulty, that the could at any time be drawn to do it. There