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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Rémy Belleau (1528–1577)
Belleau, Rémy (bel-lō’). A noted French poet; born at Nogent-le-Rotrou, 1528; died in Paris, March 16, 1577. One of the “Pléiade,” and ranked by some as its best poet, in preference to Bellay. His poems are graceful and melodious, and show less affectation of sentiment than those of many of his contemporaries. He made an elegant and spirited translation of ‘The Odes of Anacreon’ (1576). His ‘Bergerie’ (1572), a compound of prose and verse, is of unequal merit; but it contains some passages—e.g., the ‘April’—which are of consummate beauty. A curious work is his fanciful ‘Loves and New Exchanges of Precious Stones’ (1566); it is perhaps his best performance.