Prose in the hands of such writers as René Descartes and Blaise Pascal had proved itself a flexible and powerful instrument of expression, with a distinct mechanism and form.

Though fairly widely read in manuscript and also released in an unauthorized edition in 1668,[6] the book was not published till 1713, out of regard, it is said, for Mlle de Scudéry.

Whereupon Boileau diplomatically selected as his "least bad" some still unprinted lines in honour of the grand monarch and proceeded to recite them.

He influenced English literature through the translation of L'Art poétique by Sir William Soame and John Dryden, and their imitation in Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism.

[4] Of the four books of L'Art poétique, the first and last consist of general precepts, inculcating mainly the great rule of bon sens; the second treats of the pastoral, the elegy, the ode, the epigram and satire; and the third of tragic and epic poetry.

[7] In 1693 he added some critical reflections to the translation, chiefly directed against the theory of the superiority of the moderns over the ancients as advanced by Charles Perrault.

The epistle, Sur l'amour de Dieu, was a triumphant vindication on the part of Boileau of the dignity of his art.

In 1687 he retired to a country-house he had bought at Auteuil, which Jean Racine, because of the numerous guests, calls his hôtellerie d'Auteuil.

In the 12th satire, Sur l'équivoque, he attacked the Jesuits in verses which Sainte-Beuve called a recapitulation of the Lettres provinciales of Pascal.

But the Jesuit fathers obtained from Louis XIV the withdrawal of the privilege already granted for the publication, and demanded the suppression of the 12th satire.

He holds a well-defined place in French literature, as the first who reduced its versification to rule, and taught the value of workmanship for its own sake.

After much undue depreciation, Boileau's critical work has been rehabilitated by recent writers, perhaps to the extent of some exaggeration in the other direction.

The critical text of his works was established by Berriat Saint-Prix, Œuvres de Boileau (4 vols., 1830–1837), who made use of some 350 editions.

This text, edited with notes by Paul Chéron, with the Boloeana of 1740, and an essay by Sainte-Beuve, was reprinted by Garnier frères (1860).