Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/698

BOI Boileau died of dropsy in the chest. A large number of persons attended his funeral. "What a number of friends he had," said a woman in the crowd to Louis Racine, as he moved in the procession, "and yet this is the man said to have spoken ill of all the world!" He was buried at the Chapelle de Paris, under the spot occupied once by the reading-desk, which his poem of the "Lutrin" had rendered famous. His resting-place, in the days of the Revolution, which left neither the living nor the dead at peace, was disturbed, and the body removed. In July, 1819, the mortal remains of Boileau were again removed from the Musée des Monument François to the parish church of St. Germain-des-prés, and placed in the chapel of St. Paul. The place is marked by a tablet of black marble, recording the dates of Boileau's birth and death, the fact of the reinterment, and the regard in which his memory is held by his country.—J. A., D.  BOINDIN,, born at Paris in 1676; died in 1751. At the age of twenty he went into the army, which, however, he soon left from delicacy of constitution. In 1706 he became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions; Cardinal Fleury interfered to prevent his admission into the French Academy, saying that he was an atheist. He published three tracts on Roman antiquities in the Transactions of the Academy of Inscriptions; on the "Roman Tribes," on the "Forms and Architecture of the Theatres of the Ancients," and on the "Theatrical Dresses of the Ancients." These papers still possess some interest. Boindin produced some dramatic pieces, one of which was, after a few representations, not permitted to be acted. It is probable that Boindin's reputation as an atheist made phrases which, from another would be disregarded, be looked upon with suspicion. The matter was of some importance in the history of the French stage, as the incident led to the establishment of the censorship. Boindin was not allowed to die at peace, and the name of atheist robbed him of the ordinary decencies which humanity owes to the dead. The rites of sepulture were refused, and he was secretly interred by night. Boindin's works have been collected, Paris, 1752.—J. A., D.  BOINVILLIERS-DESJARDINS,, a French grammarian, born at Marseilles in 1764; died in 1830. At the time of the creation of central schools, he obtained the chair of belles-lettres at Beauvois. He was a very voluminous writer; and besides several other works, too numerous to specify, published editions of Phaedrus, Terence, &c. He was member of a great number of literary societies in the departments, and correspondent of the Institute since 1800.  * BOISDUVAL,, a French naturalist, was born at Ticheville, 17th June, 1801. He prosecuted his studies at Vimoutiers, and he subsequently gave attention to pharmacy at Falaise, Rouen, and Paris. In 1824 he gained a botanical prize, and one for medical natural history at the school of pharmacy in Paris. He graduated as doctor of medicine in 1828. His chief works are his "French Flora;" his "Arrangement of European Lepidoptera;" and his "Account of the Lepidoptera of Madagascar, Bourbon, and Oceana."—J. H. B.  BOISGELIN DE KERDU,, a French historian, brother of the Cardinal and Count Louis-Bruno, born at Plelo in the diocese of Saint Brieno in 1758; died in 1816. He pursued the military career, became knight of Malta, in which island we find him in 1793; from this place he started for Toulon, then occupied by the English for Louis XVII. When the republicans made themselves masters of this place, he retired with his regiment into Corsica. He afterwards went to England, and did not return to France till the restoration of the Bourbons. Author of "Ancient and Modern Malta," London, 1803, 3 vols. 8vo; "Travels through Denmark and Sweden," ibid., 2 vols. 4to; a continuation of the Abbé Vertot's History of the Revolutions of Portugal, ibid., 1809, 12mo, &c.—J. G.  BOISJOLIN,, born at Alençon, 1761, was one of that rather large class of writers, who, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, in France, devoted attention to English literature. He had written a poem in imitation of Thomson, and had translated Pope's Windsor Forest, when the Revolution breaking out turned his thoughts in a different direction. Under the directory he obtained a situation in the foreign office, and when Bonaparte became first consul, Boisjolin obtained a seat in the tribunat, but his poetical vein never returned. He died in March, 1843.—J. F. C.  BOISMONT,, a French preacher of considerable celebrity, born at a village of Normandy in 1715; died at Paris in 1786. In his youth he was indolent and somewhat dissipated; but latterly did justice to his talents by indulging an ambition to be the first of preachers in the metropolis. He was admitted into the academy in 1744, and afterwards became preacher in ordinary to the king. He is the author of two sets of letters on the morals of the clergy in France, and of a volume of "Oraisons Funebres, Panegyriques et Sermons."  BOISMORAND,, born at Quimper, 1680. This singular man, who, without knowing a word of English, turned a poor literal translation of the Paradise Lost into a striking and spirited copy of the great original, was a priest, and although a priest, a habitual swearer and gambler. When pressed for money he would write attacks on the jesuits, to whom he originally belonged, bring them to Father Tournemine, and obtain from the chief of the order, promises of reward, with present earnest, for demolishing the foe. As he possessed great talents, he always succeeded in inflicting satisfactory chastisement upon the imaginary enemy, then gambled away the profit, and solaced himself with swearing. He wrote some works, chiefly of an anecdotical character, and, before his death, submitted to the severest penance for the irregularities of his life. He died in 1740.—J. F. C. <section end="698H" /> <section begin="698I" />BOISOT,, born at Besançon in 1638, and died in 1694. The family to which he belonged was one of high distinction. He studied at Besançon in the classes of philosophy and law till his eighteenth year, graduated at Dôle in civil and canon law, then went to Paris, where he was favourably received in the best society. He next passed three years in Italy. At Rome he attracted the attention of Cardinal Azzolini and Christina, queen of Sweden, and found interest enough to obtain from the pope the gift of two priories in Franche Comté. He then visited Germany; and was one of the deputies of the clergy to the états of Franche Comté. He was afterwards employed by the crown in several negotiations in Italy and Spain, in all of which he acquitted himself satisfactorily. He passed two years in Spain, principally in the library of the Escurial, in which, however, he said he found nothing of the same value as the books and manuscripts he himself possessed. He purchased from St. Amour the library of cardinal de Granvelle. He arranged, classified, and secured the preservation of the memoirs of the cardinal and his father, one of whom had been prime minister of the Emperor Charles V., and the other of Philip II. Among the documents thus secured by his diligence, were most of the treaties concluded in the reigns of Charles V. and Philip II., and numberless letters in all the languages of Europe—several in cypher, and these he decyphered—from popes and kings and emperors: more important service to history could not have been performed. Leibnitz made great use of his collection in his Codex Diplomaticus, and Flechier, bishop of Nismes, in his history of Cardinal Ximenes. In 1678 Franche Comté was united to the crown, and Boisot was given the abbey of St. Vincent de Besançon: 1694 being a year of famine in his district, Boisot gave among the poor a sum of 12,500 livres, and had to borrow money for the daily expenses of his house. He died of a malignant fever, caught during his exertions for the poor.—J. A., D. <section end="698I" /> <section begin="698Zcontin" />BOISROBERT,, born at Caen in 1592, and died in 1662; son of a procureur des aides de Rouen, was first an avocat, but was too fond of society to continue long in this occupation. His company was sought everywhere; his memory was good, and he is said to have had by heart all the best stories of Boccacio and Beroald. He travelled in Italy, and Pope Urban VIII. gave him a priory in Bretagne. Boisrobert, who had not before thought of the church as a profession, now took orders, and soon obtained a good canonry at Rouen. Citois, Richelieu's physician, when the cardinal was ill, told him that an hour of Boisrobert's witty conversation would do more for him than all the drugs in the pharmacopœia. The remedy was tried, and succeeded. Boisrobert, however, got out of favour. The physician insisted on his being recalled. "Recipe Boisrobert" was the language of his prescription. The prescription was tried, and is said to have effected a cure, but the cardinal died within the year. Boisrobert's influence with Richelieu led to the incorporation of the French Academy. It is said that he offended Richelieu on one occasion, by introducing to a private representation of the tragedy of Mèrame, some acts of which were supposed to be of the cardinal's own composition, two females of doubtful character; and that at another time he <section end="698Zcontin" />