Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/259

 A N C I L L O.N. was very numerous, had not obliged him to go to fome other place where he miuht fettle himfelf ; he chole Berlin, where he received a kind reception from his highncfs the elector of Brandenburg : he was made niniftei of Herlin, and had the plcafure of feeing his eldeft fun made judge and director of the French in that city, and his other ion rewarded with a penfion, and entertained at the univcrfity of Francfort upon the Oder. He had likewife the fitisfaclion of feeing his bro- ther made judge of all the Frrnch in the ftates of Branden- burg; and Mr. Cayart, his fuii-in-lavv, engineer to his eledtoral highnefs. He enjoyed thefe agreeable circumftancc. i., 'H.p.jj* and feveral others till his dearh, which happened at Berlin the 3d of September, 1692, when he was feventy-hve years of age. Mr. Ancillon having sot a good deal of money by mar- riage, was enabled thereby to gratify his paffion for books : bis library was accordingly very curious and large ; and fo- reigners, as they pafled through the city of Metz, ufed to v.i- iit it as the moft valuable curiofity there. He publifhed fc- veral works ; and we cannot form a truer idea of the variety of learning which enlivened his converfation, than from a book entituled " Melange critique de litterature recuilli des j ourna] dtf conventions de feu M. Ancillon:" it was publifhed at Leipik. Bafil in 1698, in two volumes in duodecimo, by Charles l6 9 s - Ancillon the advocate, the eldeft fon of the minifter : a gen- tleman well known in the republic of letters, ar.d who died at Berlin in 1715. ANCOURT (FLORENT-CARTON D') an eminent French aclor and dramatic writer, born at Fontainbleau, Odtober 1661. He ftudied in the Jefuits college at Paris, under fa- ther De la Rue, who, difcovering in him a remarkable viva- city and capacity for learning, was extremely defirous of en- Memo j re , him in their order; but Ancourt's averfion to a reli-p., u ricrvir ' gious life rendered all his efforts ineffediual. After he h-ad 1'Hiiioire ' n ' gone through a courfe of philofophy, he applied himfelf irf the civil law, and was admitted advocate at feventeen years ton. *vi. of age. But falling in love with an a&refs, this induced him F to go upon the ftage ; and, in 1680, he married this womnn. As he had all the qualifications neceflary for the theatre, he ibon greatly ditfinguifhed himfelf: and not being fatisficd with the ap}:laufe only of an actor, he begin to write pieces for the Itage, many of which had fuch prodigious fuc- cefs, that moft of the players grew rich from the profits of them.