For other places with this name, see Northumberland (disambiguation)
Alan Beith (LD) Ronnie Campbell (L) Denis Murphy (L) Northumberland is a county in the North East of England. The non-metropolitan county of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North Sea coastline. Since 1974 the county council has been located in Morpeth, situated in the east of the county at 55°10′07″N, 1°41′15″W; however, both Morpeth and Alnwick claim the title county town.
As the kingdom of Northumbria under King Edwin, the region's historical boundaries stretched from the Humber in the south to the Forth in the north. The historic boundaries of the county cover a different area, including Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the traditional county town, as well as Tynemouth and other settlements in North Tyneside, areas administered by Tyne and Wear since 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The historic boundaries of the county are sometimes taken to exclude Islandshire, Bedlingtonshire and Norhamshire (collectively North Durham), exclaves of County Durham which were incorporated into Northumberland in 1844.
Being on the border of Scotland and England, Northumberland has been the site of many battles. The county is noted for its undeveloped landscape of high moorland, a favourite with landscape painters, and now largely protected as a National Park.
Northumberland's county flower is the Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum) and her affiliated Royal Navy ship is her namesake, HMS Northumberland.

Blyth Valley
Wansbeck
Castle Morpeth
Tynedale
Alnwick
Berwick-upon-Tweed History
The physical geography of Northumberland is diverse. It is low and flat near the North Sea coast and increasingly mountainous toward the northwest. The Cheviot Hills, in the northwest of the county, consist mainly of resistant Devonian granite and andesite lava. A second area of igneous rock underlies Whin Sill (on which Hadrian's Wall runs), an intrusion of carboniferous Dolerite. Both ridges support a rather bare moorland landscape. Either side of Whin Sill the county lies on carboniferous limestone, giving some areas of karst landscape.
Approximately a quarter of the county is protected as the Northumberland National Park, an area of outstanding landscape that has largely been protected from development and agriculture. The park stretches south from the Scottish border and includes Hadrian's Wall. Most of the park is over 800 feet (240 metres) above sea level. The Northumberland Coast is also a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Physical geography
There are a variety of notable habitats and species in Northumberland including: Chillingham Cattle herd; Holy Island; Farne Islands; and Staple Island.

Ecology
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Northumberland at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
Northumberland has a relatively weak economy amongst the counties and other local government areas of the United Kingdom..

Demographics
See also: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northumberland
Like most English shire counties Northumberland has a two-tier system of local government. It has a county council based in Morpeth and also has six districts, each with their own district council.
These districts are, Blyth Valley, Wansbeck, Castle Morpeth, Tynedale, Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed. The county and district councils are responsible for different aspects of local government.
The Department for Communities and Local Government have passed plans to reorganise Northumberland's administrative structure. Two proposals are being looked at - one to abolish all of the districts to create a Northumberland unitary authority; and one to create two separate unitary authorities, South East Northumberland (the area now covered by Blyth Valley and Wansbeck), and Rural Northumberland (the area now covered by the other four districts). The changes are planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009.
Northumberland is represented in the House of Commons by four Members of Parliament, of whom one is a Conservative, one is a Liberal Democrat and two are Labour.

Politics
Northumberland has traditions not found elsewhere in England, reflecting a mix of indigenous, Anglian, Celtic and Norse influences. These include the rapper sword dance, the Clog dance and the Northumbrian smallpipe. Northumberland also has its own kilt and tartan, sometimes referred to in Scotland as the Shepherd's Tartan. Traditional Northumberland music sounds similar to Scottish music, reflecting the strong historical links between Northumbria and Scotland.
In general, the culture of Northumberland, as with the north east of England, has much more it would seem in common with Scottish Lowland culture than with the rest of England, the two perhaps having more in common with each other in some respects, than with other parts of their respective countries. The links between Northumberland and Scotland are audible in the dialects of both, which include many Old English words, such as bairn for child. For further information, see Scots language and Geordie. Attempts to raise the level of awareness of Northumberland culture have also started, with the formation of a Northumbrian Language Society to preserve the unique dialects (Pitmatic and Northumbrian) of this region, as well as to promote home-grown talent.
Northumberland has its own flag, based on the design first used on the tomb of St Oswald in the 7th century. The current version was granted to the county council in 1951, and adopted as the flag of Northumberland county in 1995.[1]

Culture
Having no large population centres, the county's mainstream media outlets are served from nearby Tyne and Wear, including radio stations and television channels (such as BBC Look North, BBC Radio Newcastle, Tyne Tees Television and Metro Radio), along with the majority of daily newspapers covering the area (The Journal, Evening Chronicle). Newspapers focusing exclusively on Northumberland or its districts include the Northumberland Gazette, Morpeth Herald, Berwick Advertiser, Hexham Courant and the News Post Leader.
Lionheart FM, a community radio station based in Alnwick, has recently been awarded a five-year community broadcasting license by OFCOM. Radio Borders covers Berwick and the rural north of the county.

Media

People
Ashington was the birth place of the three famous footballers Bobby and Jack Charlton in 1937 and 1935 respectively; and Jackie Milburn previously in 1924. The basketballer Alan Hoyle was born here in 1983 whilst in 1978 Steve Harmison, an international cricketer was born here.
Mickley was the birth place of Thomas Bewick, an artist, wood engraver and naturalist in 1753 and Bob Stokoe, a footballer, F.A. Cup winning manager in 1930
Other notable births include:

Thomas Addison, a physician born at Longbenton in 1793
George Airy, an astronomer and geophysicist born at Alnwick in 1802
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, landscape and garden designer born at Kirkharle in 1715
Josephine Butler, social reformer born at Milfield in 1828
Basil Bunting, a poet born at Scotswood-on-Tyne in 1900
Grace Darling, a heroine born at Bamburgh in 1815
Pete Doherty, a musician born at Hexham in 1979
Bryan Donkin, an engineer and industrialist born at Sandhoe in 1768
Robson Green, an actor and singer born at Hexham in 1964
Daniel Gooch, an engineer and politician born at Bedlington in 1816
Sir Alistair Graham (1942 -), noted public figure
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister born at the family seat of Howick Hall in 1764
John Rushworth (1793-1860), an historian born at Acklington Park, Warkworth
George Stephenson, an engineer born at Wylam in 1781
Hugh Trevor-Roper, an historian born at Glanton in 1914
William Turner, ornithologist and botanist born at Morpeth in 1508
C. V. Wedgwood, an historian born in 1910 Famous people born in Northumbria

Thomas Burt, one of the first working-class Members of Parliament and was secretary of the Northumberland Miners' Association in 1863
Ross Noble, a stand-up comedian raising in Cramlington in the 1970s and 1980s
Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy (1365-1403), borders warlord and rebel
Billy Pigg, a 20th century musician who was vice-President of the Northumbrian Pipers Society
Algernon Swinburne, a poet raised at Capheaton Hall
Kathryn Tickell, a modern day player of the Northumbrian smallpipes
Mark Knopfler, the lead singer of Dire Straits released a song called "Fare Thee Well Northumberland" on his 2002 album, The Ragpicker's Dream. Settlements

Duke of Northumberland
Northumbria
List of places of interest and tourist attractions in Northumberland
List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northumberland
Anglo-Scottish border

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Wales
       1997, 2001, 2005, 2009/10
       1999, 2004, 2009
National Assembly for Wales constituencies and electoral regions were first used for the Welsh Assembly election, 1999. New boundaries came into use for the Welsh Assembly election, 2007. The total numbers of constituencies and regions (40 constituencies and five regions) remained the same.
The constituencies of the National Assembly for Wales (or Welsh Assembly) (Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) were created with the boundaries of the Welsh constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), as they were in 1999. The new boundaries are those which will be used, also, for the next United Kingdom general election. Therefore, since the 2007 Assembly election and until the next United Kingdom general election, the two sets of constituencies, Assembly and Westminster, have differing boundaries.
Three constituency names, Conwy, Carnarfon, and Meirionydd Nant Conwy, have become historic, and the new boundaries define three constituencies with new names, Arfon, Dwyfor Meirionnydd, and Aberconwy. Generally, the new boundaries define each constituency as a division of a single preserved county, take account of changes to local government ward boundaries, and create constituencies closer to equal in terms of the sizes of their electorates. Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, however, continues to straddle the boundary between Mid Glamorgan and Gwent.
Unlike Westminster constituencies, Assembly constituencies are grouped into electoral regions, and an additional member system is used to elect four additional Assembly Members (AMs) (Welsh: Aelodau y Cynulliad) from each region, in addition, that is, to AMs elected by the constituencies. At each general election of the Assembly, each elector has two votes, one constituency vote and one regional party-list vote. Each constituency elects one AM by the first past the post (single-member district plurality, SMDP) system, and the additional Assembly seats are filled from regional closed party lists, under the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account, to produce a degree of proportional representation for each region. Altogether, 60 AMs are elected from the 40 constituencies and five electoral regions, creating an Assembly of 40 constituency AMs and 20 additional AMs. Every constituent is represented by one constituency AM and four regional AMs.

Contemporary Welsh Law
English Law
Courts of England and Wales
National Assembly for Wales

• Measures
  Statutory Instruments
  Presiding Officer
  
  
  
  • Dafydd Elis-Thomas
    Members (AMs): 2007
    Constituencies and electoral regions
    Elections: 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011
    Welsh Assembly Government
    
    
    
    • First Minister: Rhodri Morgan
      Deputy First Minister: Ieuan Wyn Jones
      Welsh Ministers
      Counsel General: Carwyn Jones
      Wales in the UK Parliament:
      
      
      
      • Constituencies
        Acts
        Constituencies
        Elections: 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992,
        Wales in the UK Government:
        
        
        
        • Wales Office
          Secretary of State: Peter Hain
          European Parliament
          
          
          
          • European Parliament constituency
            Elections: 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994,
            Administrative divisions of Wales
            Political parties From 2007
            
            Electoral regions
            
            Constituencies
            
            

The United States and Ecuador have maintained close ties based on mutual interests in maintaining democratic institutions; combating illegal drugs trade; building trade, investment, and financial ties; cooperating in fostering Ecuador's economic development; and participating in inter-American organizations. Ties are further strengthened by the presence of an estimated 150,000-200,000 Ecuadorians living in the United States and by 24,000 U.S. citizens visiting Ecuador annually, and by approximately 15,000 U.S. citizens residing in Ecuador. The United States assists Ecuador's economic development directly through the Agency for International Development (USAID) program in Ecuador and through multilateral organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. In addition, the U.S. Peace Corps operates a sizable program in Ecuador. More than 100 U.S. companies are doing business in Ecuador.
Both nations are signatories of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the Rio Treaty) of 1947, the Western Hemisphere's regional mutual security treaty. Ecuador shares U.S. concern over increasing narcotrafficking and international terrorism and has energetically condemned terrorist actions, whether directed against government officials or private citizens. The government has maintained Ecuador virtually free of coca production since the mid-1980s and is working to combat money laundering and the transshipment of drugs and chemicals essential to the processing of cocaine.
Ecuador and the U.S. agreed in 1999 to a 10-year arrangement whereby U.S. military surveillance aircraft could use the airbase at Manta, Ecuador, as a Forward Operating Location to detect drug trafficking flights through the region. In fisheries issues, the United States claims jurisdiction for the management of coastal fisheries up to 200 mile (370 km) from its coast, but excludes highly migratory species; Ecuador, on the other hand, claims a 200 mile (370 km) territorial sea, and imposes license fees and fines on foreign fishing vessels in the area, making no exceptions for catches of migratory species. In the early 1970s, Ecuador seized about 100 foreign-flag vessels (many of them U.S.) and collected fees and fines of more than $6 million. After a drop-off in such seizures for some years, several U.S. tuna boats were again detained and seized in 1980 and 1981.
The U.S. Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act then triggered an automatic prohibition of U.S. imports of tuna products from Ecuador. The prohibition was lifted in 1983, and although fundamental differences between U.S. and Ecuadorian legislation still exist, there is no current conflict. During the period that has elapsed since seizures which triggered the tuna import ban, successive Ecuadorian governments have declared their willingness to explore possible solutions to this problem with mutual respect for longstanding positions and principles of both sides.

The Glass Flowers, formally The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, is a famous collection of highly-realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, Germany, near Dresden. They were commissioned by Professor George Lincoln Goodale, founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum, for the purpose of teaching botany, and financed by Goodale's former student, Mary Lee Ware and her mother, Elizabeth Ware. Over 3000 models, of 847 different plant species, were made.

The models
The flowers have suffered deterioration and are undergoing restoration. In a 1999 article about the collection in the journal ResearchPennState curatorial associate Susan Rossi-Wilcox is quoted as saying "It took a long time for the faculty here to go from thinking about the Glass Flowers as a teaching collection to thinking about them as art objects." Rossi-Wilcox went on "See the white powdery stuff on the leaves? This is glass corrosion. The majority of these models are affected. That's the great irony. The models showing plant diseases are also showing glass diseases."

Restoration
The Glass Flowers were and are one of the most famous attractions of the Boston area. More than 120,000 visitors view the collection annually. In 1936, when Harvard invited the public to tour the campus in honor of its tercentenary, a New York Times reporter taking the tour commented "Tercentenary or no, the chief focus of interest remains the famous glass flowers, the first of which was put on exhibition in 1893, and which with additions at interval since, have never failed to draw exclamations of wonder or disbelief from visitors.".

The California Eagle, was one of the oldest African American newspapers in Los Angeles, California, and the West, traces its origins to 1879.

Later history

Pathophysiology
Between 1995 and 2005, 16,742 Americans died from hernias.

Epidemiology
Hernias can be classified according to their anatomical location:
Examples include:
Each of the above hernias may be characterised by several aspects:
If irreducible, hernias can develop several complications (hence, they can be complicated or uncomplicated):

abdominal hernias
diaphragmatic hernias and hiatal hernias (for example, paraesophageal hernia of the stomach)
pelvic hernias, for example, obturator hernia
hernias of the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs
intracranial hernias
congenital or acquired: congenital hernias occur prenatally or in the first year(s) of life, and are caused by a congenital defect, whereas acquired hernias develop later on in life. However, this may be on the basis of a locus minoris resistentiae (Lat. place of least resistance) that is congenital, but only becomes symptomatic later on in life, when degeneration and increased stress (for example, increased abdominal pressure from coughing in COPD) provoke the hernia.
complete or incomplete: for example, the stomach may partially herniate into the chest, or completely.
internal or external: external ones herniate to the outside world, whereas internal hernias protrude from their normal compartment to another (for example, mesenteric hernias).
intraparietal hernia: hernia that does not reach all the way to the subcutis, but only to the musculoaponeurotic layer. An example is a Spigelian hernia. Intraparietal hernias may produces less obvious bulging, and may be less easily detected on clinical examination.
bilateral: in this case, simultaneous repair may be considered, sometimes even with a giant prosthetic reinforcement.
irreducible (also known as incarcerated): the hernial contents cannot be returned to their normal site with simple manipulation
strangulation: pressure on the hernial contents may compromise blood supply (especially veins, with their low pressure, are sensitive, and venous congestion often results) and cause ischemia, and later necrosis and gangrene, which may become fatal.
obstruction: for example, when a part of the bowel herniates, bowel contents can no longer pass the obstruction. This results in cramps, and later on vomiting, ileus, absence of flatus and absence of defecation. These signs mandate urgent surgery.
another complication arises when the herniated organ itself, or surrounding organs start dysfunctioning (for example, sliding hernia of the stomach causing heartburn, lumbar disc hernia causing sciatic nerve pain, etc.) Characteristics
It is generally advisable to repair hernias in a timely fashion, in order to prevent complications such as organ dysfunction, gangrene, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Most abdominal hernias can be surgically repaired, and recovery rarely requires long-term changes in lifestyle. Uncomplicated hernias are principally repaired by pushing back, or "reducing", the herniated tissue, and then mending the weakness in muscle tissue (an operation called herniorrhaphy). If complications have occurred, the surgeon will check the viability of the herniated organ, and resect it if necessary. Modern muscle reinforcement techniques involve synthetic materials (a mesh prosthesis) that avoid over-stretching of already weakened tissue (as in older, but still useful methods). The mesh is placed over the defect, and sometimes staples are used to keep the mesh in place. Increasingly, some repairs are performed through laparoscopes.
Many patients are managed through surgical daycare centers, and are able to return to work within a week or two, while heavy activities are prohibited for a longer period. Surgical complications have been estimated to be up to 10%, but most of them can be easily addressed. They include surgical site infections, nerve and blood vessel injuries, injury to nearby organs, and hernia recurrence.
Generally, the use of external devices to maintain reduction of the hernia without repairing the underlying defect (such as hernia trusses, trunks, belts, etc.), is not advised. Exceptions are uncomplicated incisional hernias that arise shortly after the operation (should only be operated after a few months), or inoperable patients.
It is essential that the hernia not be further irritated by carrying out strenuous labour.

Treatment
A sportman's hernia is a syndrome characterized by chronic groin pain in athletes and a dilated superficial ring of the inguinal canal, although a true hernia is not present.

Individual hernias
Main article: inguinal hernia.
By far the most common hernias (up to 75% of all abdominal hernias) are the so-called inguinal hernias. For a thorough understanding of inguinal hernias, much insight is needed in the anatomy of the inguinal canal. Inguinal hernias are further divided into the more common indirect inguinal hernia (2/3, depicted here), in which the inguinal canal is entered via a congenital weakness at its entrance (the internal inguinal ring), and the direct inguinal hernia type (1/3), where the hernia contents push through a weak spot in the back wall of the inguinal canal. Inguinal hernias are more common in men than women while femoral hernias are more common in women.

Inguinal hernia
Main article: femoral hernia.
Femoral hernias occur just below the inguinal ligament, when abdominal contents pass into the weak area at the posterior wall of the femoral canal. They can be hard to distinguish from the inguinal type (especially when ascending cephalad): however, they generally appear more rounded, and, in contrast to inguinal hernias, there is a strong female preponderance in femoral hernias. The incidence of strangulation in femoral hernias is high. Repair techniques are similar for femoral and inguinal hernia.

Femoral hernia
Main article: umbilical hernia.
Umbilical hernias are especially common in infants of African descent, and occur more in boys. They involve protrusion of intraabdominal contents through a weakness at the site of passage of the umbilical cord through the abdominal wall. These hernias often resolve spontaneously. Umbilical hernias in adults are largely acquired, and are more frequent in obese or pregnant women. Abnormal decussation of fibers at the linea alba may contribute.

Umbilical hernia
Main article: incisional hernia.
An incisional hernia occurs when the defect is the result of an incompletely healed surgical wound. When these occur in median laparotomy incisions in the linea alba, they are termed ventral hernias. These can be the most frustrating and difficult to treat, as the repair utilizes already attenuated tissue.

Incisional hernia
Main article: diaphragmatic hernia
Higher in the abdomen, an (internal) "diaphragmatic hernia" results when part of the stomach or intestine protrudes into the chest cavity through a defect in the diaphragm.
A hiatus hernia is a particular variant of this type, in which the normal passageway through which the esophagus meets the stomach (esophageal hiatus) serves as a functional "defect", allowing part of the stomach to (periodically) "herniate" into the chest. Hiatus hernias may be either "sliding," in which the gastroesophageal junction itself slides through the defect into the chest, or non-sliding (also known as para-esophageal), in which case the junction remains fixed while another portion of the stomach moves up through the defect. Non-sliding or para-esophageal hernias can be dangerous as they may allow the stomach to rotate and obstruct. Repair is usually advised.
A congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a distinct problem, occurring in up to 1 in 2000 births, and requiring pediatric surgery. Intestinal organs may herniate through several parts of the diaphragm, posterolateral (in Bochdalek's triangle, resulting in Bochdalek's hernia), or anteromedial-retrosternal (in the cleft of Larrey/Morgagni's foramen, resulting in Morgagni-Larrey hernia, or Morgagni's hernia).

Diaphragmatic hernia
Since many organs or parts of organs can herniate through many orifices, it is very difficult to give an exhaustive list of hernias, with all synonyms and eponyms. The above article deals mostly with "visceral hernias", where the herniating tissue arises within the abdominal cavity. Other hernia types and unusual types of visceral hernias are listed below, in alphabetical order:

Brain hernia: herniation of part of the brain because of excessive intracranial pressure. This may be a life-threatening condition, especially if the brain stem (responsible for some important vital signs) is involved.
Cooper's hernia: A femoral hernia with two sacs, the first being in the femoral canal, and the second passing through a defect in the superficial fascia and appearing immediately beneath the skin.
epigastric hernia: hernia through the linea alba above the umbilicus.
Littre's hernia: hernia involving a Meckel's diverticulum. It is named after French anatomist Alexis Littre (1658-1726).
lumbar hernia: hernia in the lumbar region (not to be confused with a lumbar disc hernia), contains following entities:

• Petit's hernia - hernia through Petit's triangle (inferior lumbar triangle). It is named after French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750).
  Grynfeltt's hernia - hernia through Grynfeltt-Lesshaft triangle (superior lumbar triangle). It is named after physician Joseph Grynfeltt (1840-1913).
  obturator hernia: hernia through obturator canal
  pantaloon hernia: a combined direct and indirect hernia, when the hernial sac protrudes on either side of the inferior epigastric vessels
  perineal hernia: A perineal hernia protrudes through the muscles and fascia of the perineal floor. It may be primary but usually, is acquired following perineal prostatectomy, abdominoperineal resection of the rectum, or pelvic exenteration.
  properitoneal hernia: rare hernia located directly above the peritoneum, for example, when part of an inguinal hernia projects from the deep inguinal ring to the preperitoneal space.
  Richter's hernia: strangulated hernia involving only one sidewall of the bowel, which can result in bowel perforation through ischaemia without causing bowel obstruction or any of its warning signs. It is named after German surgeon August Gottlieb Richter (1742-1812).
  sliding hernia: occurs when an organ drags along part of the peritoneum, or, in other words, the organ is part of the hernia sac. The colon and the urinary bladder are often involved. The term also frequently refers to sliding hernias of the stomach.
  sciatic hernia: this hernia in the greater sciatic foramen most commonly presents as an uncomfortable mass in the gluteal area. Bowel obstruction may also occur. This type of hernia is only a rare cause of sciatic neuralgia.
  Spigelian hernia, also known as spontaneous lateral ventral hernia
  Velpeau hernia: a hernia in the groin in front of the femoral blood vessels
  spinal disc herniation, or "herniated nucleus pulposus": a condition where the central weak part of the intervertebral disc (nucleus pulposus, which helps absorb shocks to our spine), herniates through the fibrous band (annulus fibrosus) by which it is normally bound. This usually occurs low in the back at the lumbar or lumbo-sacral level and can cause back pain which usually radiates well into the thigh or leg. When the sciatic nerve is involved, the symptom complex is called sciatica. Herniation can occur in the cervical vertebrae too. A nucleoplasty is an operation to repair the herniation. Complications
  
  "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song entitled "Living with a Hernia", on his Polka Party! album. The song is a parody of James Brown's "Living in America", and describes the discomfort associated with suffering a hernia, as well as listing common types of hernias.
  Comedian Bill Engvall has a routine "My hernia"..
  The Arrogant Worms recorded a song entitled "Hernia Belt", on their Beige album. The song praises the singer's hernia belt and later hernia repair surgery.
  In the Simpsons episode Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish", a hernia killed Oxford as he was carrying a safe full of paintings out of a castle.

Joseph Jack Fins, M.D.,F.A.C.P.' (b. 1959) is Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics (http://www.med.cornell.edu/public.health/ethics/index.html) at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College where he serves as Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry. Dr. Fins is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Rockefeller University and has served as Associate for Medicine at The Hastings Center. He was appointed by President Clinton to The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and currently serves on The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law by appointment of Governor Eliot Spitzer.
Dr. Fins' scholarship in medical ethics and health policy has focused on palliative care, rational approaches to ethical dilemmas and the development of "clinical pragmatism" as a method of moral problem-solving drawing upon the American pragmatic tradition of William James and John Dewey. His more recent work has been in neuorethics and disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury. He was a co-author of the landmark Nature paper describing the first use of deep brain stimulation in the minimally conscious state.
Dr. Fins has been a Visiting Professor in Medical Ethics at The Complutense University in Madrid and Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. He is a recipient of a Soros Open Society Institute Project on Death in America Faculty Scholars Award, a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Visiting Fellowship and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. (http://www.investigatorawards.org/)
Dr. Fins received a B.A. (College of Letters with Honors) from Wesleyan University in 1982 and an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1986. After an internship at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, Dr. Fins completed his internal medicine residency training and fellowship in general internal medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He is the author of "A Palliative Ethic of Care: Clinical Wisdom at Life's End" published by Jones and Bartlett (2006).( http://medicine.jbpub.com/catalog/0763732923/testimonials.htm)
A practicing internist at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Fins is a Governor of the American College of Physicians and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. He has been a Trustee of Wesleyan University and served on the board of The Fund for Modern Courts and New York's Attorney General's Commission on Quality Care at the End of Life. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Oncologist and BioMed Central Medical Ethics.
Dr. Fins is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine.

George Alfred George-Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC (2 September 1914 – 2 June 1985) was a British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and was a senior Cabinet minister (including as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) in the Labour government of the 1960s. He was a leader of the right wing within the Labour Party and an effective, if aggressive, election campaigner, but was ultimately unable to cope with the pressures of high office without excessive drinking. He changed his surname from Brown to George-Brown in order to incorporate his first name into his peerage title, which was created on 6 November 1970.

Early Life
Shortly before marrying Sophie Levene on 22 April 1937, Brown was appointed as a ledger clerk with the Transport and General Workers Union, moving to be District Organiser for Watford the next year. Brown was already active within the Labour Party and the Labour League of Youth. He ran as a moderate candidate for the Chairmanship but at the Labour Party conference in 1937 he was defeated by Ted Willis of the left, later a noted playwright and television dramatist. At the 1939 Labour Party conference Brown made his mark by a strong speech demanding the expulsion of Stafford Cripps for his support for the Popular Front. Cripps refused to speak to Brown for the rest of his life.
His TGWU activities brought him into close contact with Ernest Bevin, the Union's founder and General Secretary who was brought into the wartime coalition government. Brown himself served as a temporary Civil Servant in the Ministry of Agriculture from 1940 onwards.

Trade Union organiser
As a TGWU official, Brown was an attractive candidate to Labour constituencies seeking a candidate, as the TGWU would sponsor him and pay election expenses. He was selected for Belper, a mixed constituency near Derby which was one of the top Labour target seats. In the 1945 general election Brown won the seat with a majority of nearly 9,000. He was invited as one of a dozen 'Young Victors' to a private dinner given by Hugh Dalton on 30 July 1945 who was talent-spotting and networking. Brown was immediately picked to be a Parliamentary Private Secretary by George Isaacs, who had followed the promoted Bevin as Minister of Labour.
The job of the Parliamentary Private Secretary (usually known as a 'PPS') was almost made for Brown, who was both adept at understanding political issues and how to communicate them, and convivial and generally popular within the Parliamentary Labour Party (save among the left-wing faction, whom he attacked as 'long-haired intellectuals'). He transferred to be PPS to Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton in April 1947, at a time when the economic situation of Britain had barely improved and the Chancellor needed the maximum political support. Brown launched an unsuccessful plot to have Clement Attlee replaced as Prime Minister by Ernest Bevin, although without consulting Bevin who did not approve.

Member of Parliament
Attlee, despite knowing all about Brown's plot to depose him, swiftly appointed Brown as Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture. The Prime Minister had decided that it would be best if Brown were kept busy. At the Ministry of Agriculture, Brown worked to pass the Agriculture Act 1947 which provided price support to farmers, and also to provide more arable land and ease shortages of machinery and foodstuffs. Government policy aimed at increasing food production so that rationing could be lifted, but progress was slow. However, Attlee grew to appreciate his talent.
When his mentor Bevin died in April 1951, Brown was appointed Minister of Works in the reshuffle - at the head of a Ministry but not in the Cabinet. Brown inherited a long-running struggle by the Government to have the Tower of London open to tourists on Sunday, and managed to solve it by outsmarting the Constable of the Tower in negotiations.

Ministerial office
No sooner had Brown got to grips with his office, than he was forced to leave it when Labour lost the 1951 general election. As with other Government ministers, Brown found himself forced to rely on an inadequate Parliamentary salary which led him to consider a return to being a Trade Union official. However, he was appointed in 1953 as a consultant to the Daily Mirror Group of newspapers, enabling him to stay in politics.
Brown was a partisan participant in the Labour Party's internecine struggles in the early 1950s, opposing the Bevanite campaign. His natural campaigning ability became prominent, but also his tendency to be rude to those with whom he had disagreements. Shortly after the 1955 general election, Brown was elected to the Shadow Cabinet for the first time; from that December Brown found it easier to win promotion as his friend Hugh Gaitskell became Leader of the Labour Party. Brown had a private but widely publicised shouting-match with Soviet leaders Nikita Khruschev and Nikolai Bulganin when he was part of a Labour Party delegation invited to dine with them on their British visit in April 1956. That year, he lost the election to be the Treasurer of the Labour Party to Bevan.

Opposition
After the death of Aneurin Bevan in the summer of 1960, the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party became vacant at a time when the Labour Party was severely divided over Clause IV of the party constitution. Brown was encouraged to stand as the candidate of the Gaitskellite right; the other candidates were left-winger Frederick Lee and the moderate but insufficiently senior James Callaghan. Brown was elected, beating Lee by 146 votes to 83 when Callaghan had been eliminated. Gaitskell as Leader and Brown as Deputy Leader did not seem to most on the left of the Labour Party to be a balanced ticket, and Brown was challenged for the job in both 1961, by Barbara Castle, and 1962, by Harold Wilson. Part of his job was to improve Labour's by-election campaigning, and he was successful in winning several - most notably, Middlesbrough West.
Gaitskell's sudden death in January 1963 left Brown no choice but to challenge for the Party Leadership. However he mishandled the campaign badly. At the first Shadow Cabinet meeting after Gaitskell's death, Brown and his Leadership rival Harold Wilson agreed to a clean fight. Wilson, who was accused by the right of undermining party unity, then informed the press that each agreed to serve under the other, which undermined his reputation for plotting; Brown repudiated any such agreement, laying himself open to the accusation.

Deputy leadership
Many on the right of the Labour Party, most notably Anthony Crosland and Denis Healey, supported James Callaghan for the leadership, as they were opposed to Wilson, but also didn't trust Brown. Part of the reason for the mistrust of Brown was the private knowledge of his excessive drinking, which exacerbated his rude and aggressive style of politics. Crosland himself called the leadership election as being "A choice between a crook (Wilson) and a drunk (Brown)". The mainstream press of the day did not publicise this problem, but it became publicly apparent when Brown was invited on Associated-Rediffusion television to pay tribute to John F. Kennedy after his assassination (Brown was probably the closest Labour politician to Kennedy). Brown had come from a dinner in Shoreditch where he had already drunk a great deal, and drank more while preparing to go on air - having a row with actor Eli Wallach which became physical. When Brown went on air, millions of viewers saw him interpret a fair question as an accusation of his having overstated his closeness, then give a morose and slurred tribute from which it was apparent he was intoxicated. Brown had to issue a public apology. Many Labour MPs who were prepared to accept Brown as Deputy Leader were unhappy with the idea of him being in charge, and thus Wilson was easily elected.
Brown bitterly resented his leadership defeat, which came only a matter of weeks after he had defeated Wilson for the Deputy Leadership. He disappeared for five days after the result was declared, using an assumed name to book a flight to Glasgow; the newspapers were full of stories about the vanishing politician. When he returned he demanded of Wilson that he be appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary, which Wilson refused to do.
He retained the Deputy Leadership and despite his personal differences, played an important part in advising Wilson about Labour's campaign strategy in the 1964 general election. It was decided that Wilson would make only a limited number of major campaign speeches outside London, while Brown would tour the country speaking in all the marginal seats (his main theme was predicting an imminent economic crisis). Brown later calculated that he had made 100 speeches. In one of them he made a gaffe by suggesting that the mortgage interest rate could be cut to 3%; the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling was quick to capitalise on this and ask how much it would cost.

Personal problems
Labour won the election with a narrow majority. As previously arranged with Wilson, Brown was appointed to the newly created Department of Economic Affairs through which they both hoped to institute long-term economic planning and remove some of the power of the Treasury. Brown also took the honorific title of First Secretary of State to cover his seniority as Deputy Leader of the Party (Brown, but no-one else, claimed that he was actually the Deputy Prime Minister).
Immediately on taking office Brown was told that the budget deficit for the coming year was forecast at £800 million, double what the Labour Party had predicted as the worst possible figure before the election. The leading economic ministers were presented with three options, including devaluation of the Pound Sterling, to meet the crisis. They decided on a temporary surcharge on imported goods. However, over the next few months Brown was persuaded by his deputy Anthony Crosland that ruling out devaluation had been a mistake. The pound continued to be under pressure in 1965 and Brown struggled over a 12-hour meeting at the Trades Union Congress to persuade the unions to accept a tougher prices and incomes policy, to which he was personally opposed.
The most important function of the DEA was to prepare a 'National Plan' for the economy. Brown became personally identified with the project, which helped increase enthusiasm for it among officials and the Labour Party, while also interesting the press. After nearly a year's work the Plan was unveiled on 16 September 1965, pledging to cover 'all aspects of the country's development for the next five years'. The Plan called for a 25% growth in Gross Domestic Product from 1964 to 1970, which worked out at 3.8% annually. There were 39 specific actions listed, although many were criticized as vague.

Department of Economic Affairs
After the 1966 general election at which Labour won re-election with a landslide, the government was hit by a severe financial crisis. The question of devaluation was raised again in a more pressing way, with Brown now strongly supporting it, but Harold Wilson was firmly opposed, preferring a set of deflationary measures including spending cuts and interest rate rises. Brown believed that these measures would damage the economy. Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan found himself in the middle, as he opposed devaluation but felt that without prompt action it was inevitable. Wilson tried to keep Brown on board, even offering to make him Chancellor should Callaghan resign, but Brown stood firm. When the Cabinet voted by 17-6 against devaluation, Brown sent a letter of resignation.
Wilson craftily sent the letter back to Brown so that he could deny having received it, and then sent George Wigg to try to talk Brown out of it. This did not prevent the news reaching the public; Wigg then changed his position and told Brown that Wilson would accept his resignation. Bizarrely this convinced Brown to stay and he accepted all of Wilson's terms for staying in the government in a late night meeting before announcing his "un-resignation" to the press in Downing Street.

July measures
Brown was reshuffled to become Foreign Secretary in August 1966, a job he coveted. This decision had implications for the government's stance on the European Economic Community as Brown had always favoured entry. Wilson had been sceptical, but not opposed outright, to joining but Brown persuaded him and the rest of the Labour Party to support an application. In May 1967 it was announced that Britain had made its second application to join. Like the first, it was vetoed by Charles de Gaulle.
Brown's drinking was became more pronounced as he became depressed by his loss of face in July 1966. His reaction to his depression was to launch vituperative attacks, for example at the son of newspaper proprietor Cecil King in October 1967. After Wilson was told of this, Brown came round and told Wilson that he had just had a terrible row with his wife and could not continue in Government. More and more people were becoming aware of Brown's alcoholism, and Private Eye managed to hint at the scandal with a parody of a memo titled "Brown: F.O. Acts". The memo gave translations into various languages for the words tired, overwrought, expansive, overworked, colourful, and emotional. This coined the phrase "tired and emotional" as a euphemism for drunk.

Foreign Secretary
During his time, and subsequently, a widely circulated but evidently false rumour had it that Brown had embarrassed himself while drunk at an official reception in South America. Brown was said to have lumbered over to a tall, elegant vision in red, and requested the honour of the next dance, to be told, "I will not dance with you for three reasons. The first is that you are drunk. The second is that the band is not playing a waltz, but the Peruvian national anthem. The final reason is that I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Montevideo". Although the story is highly amusing, checks that have been done on whether it could true have not substantiated it. Brown did not visit South America during his term, and the same story had originally circulated about a different minister.

Rumoured Archbishop of Montevideo incident
Despite devaluation in November 1967, the pound came again under severe pressure in March 1968. When Wilson wanted to declare an emergency bank holiday to give breathing space, he attempted to contact his Foreign Secretary. Brown could not be found and his staff reported his condition as "only 'so-so' when last seen", and so Wilson convened a special meeting of the Privy Council without him. Brown was incensed that Wilson had not tried further to contact him, and got together with other uninformed ministers to face down Wilson at a meeting in the early hours of the morning. Brown, who appeared very drunk, incoherently shouted at Wilson, who was almost as angry and stood up for himself. At the end of the meeting Brown stormed out.
It was unclear whether he had resigned but Brown did nothing the next day to apologise. At 6 o'clock that evening he sent a letter which said "I think it better that we should part company" but did not mention "resignation". Wilson decided to reply by accepting Brown's resignation but also sent a message saying that Brown had half an hour to say whether the letter had been misinterpreted. Brown did not act on this and so left the government, but not in the blaze of glory for which he had hoped.

Resignation
Brown's constituency of Belper had been the site of considerable new development since he had first been elected. Most of the new housing was for middle-class areas near Derby, and therefore contained mostly Conservative voters. Although a Boundary Commission report in 1969 recommended the removal of this area, the Government decided to postpone the boundary changes and Brown was forced to fight in a seat which was trending away from him. Added to this problem, he remained Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and toured the country making speeches for other Labour candidates during the 1970 general election. His Conservative opponent Geoffrey Stewart-Smith had spent the last four years nursing the constituency. Brown lost his seat by more than 2,000 votes.

Mythology
This theonym appears to be derived from Proto-Celtic *Ambaxtonos meaning "great ploughman, farmer, labourer", an augmentative form of ambactos (ultimately from *ambhi-ag-to-).

Bibliography

José Manuel Oquendo Contreras (born July 4, 1963 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico) is a former infielder in Major League Baseball and the current third base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.

New York Mets (1983-1984)
St. Louis Cardinals (1986-1995)
Led NL in games played in 1989 with 163 Career

In 1990, Oquendo set a major league record for the fewest errors (three) by a second baseman in a 150+ game season after tying what is the current American League record (five) the previous season (based upon 2002 information) [1]. However, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg won the Gold Glove Award both years.
Oquendo has played every single position on a baseball field.
Oquendo also struck out Deion Sanders ... looking.
Oquendo was pinch hit for in the 1st inning of a game during his rookie year when he was only 19 years of age. As he walked to the dugout his eyes welled up and he had cried because he never received an at bat. Nickname

List of players from Puerto Rico in Major League Baseball
List of Puerto Ricans

French and Francophone literature
French literature By category French language Medieval 16th century - 17th century 18th century - 19th century 20th century - Contemporary
Francophone literature Literature of Quebec Postcolonial literature Literature of Haiti Chronological list
Writers - Novelists Playwrights - Poets Essayists Short Story Writers
Novel - Poetry - Plays Science Fiction - Comics Fantastique - Detective Fiction Naturalism - Symbolism Surrealism - Existentialism Nouveau Roman Theater of the Absurd
Literary theory - Critics Literary Prizes
Molière - Racine - Balzac Stendhal - Flaubert Emile Zola - Marcel Proust Samuel Beckett - Albert Camus French literature of the 17th century spans the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de Medici, Louis XIII of France, the Regency of Anne of Austria (and the civil war called the Fronde) and the reign of Louis XIV of France. The literature of this period is often equated with the Classicism of Louis XIV's long reign, during which France led Europe in political and cultural development, and its authors expounded classical ideals of order, clarity, proportion, and good taste. In reality, 17th century French literature encompasses far more than just the classicist masterpieces of Jean Racine and Madame de Lafayette.
For the visual arts of the seventeenth century in France, see French Baroque and Classicism.

Society and Literature in 17th century France
For more information on literary gatherings, see Salon (gathering).
Henri IV's court was considered by contemporaries as a rude one, lacking the Italianate sophistication of the court of the Valois kings. The court also lacked a queen, who traditionally served as a focus or patron of a nation's authors and poets. Henri's literary tastes were largely limited to the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul.
In the mid-century, academies gradually came under government control and sponsorship and the number of private academies decreased The first private academy to fall under governmental control was L'Académie française, which remains the most prestigious governmental academy in France. Founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu, L'Académie française focuses on the French language.

Salons and Academies
In certain instances, the values of 17th century nobility played a major part in literature of the time. Most notable of these values are the aristocratic obsession with glory ("la gloire") and majesty ("la grandeur"). The spectacle of power, prestige and luxury found in 17th century literature may be distasteful or even offensive. Corneille's heroes, for example, have been labeled by modern critics as vain-glorious, extravagant, or prudeful; contemporaries aristocratic readers would have these same chartacters and their actions as representative of a noble station.
The château of Versailles, court ballets, noble portraits, triumphal arches --- all of these were representations of glory and prestige. The notion of glory, be it artistic or military, was not vanity or boastfulness or hubris, rather a moral imperative for the aristocratic class. Nobles were required to be "generous" and "magnanamous" and to perform great deeds disinterestedly (i.e. because their status demanded it and without expecting financial or political gain), and to master their own emotions (especially fear, jealousy and the desire for vengeance).
One's status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation ( or "conspicuous consumption"). Nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions ("hôtels particuliers") and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show liberality by hosting sumptuous parties and by funding the arts. Conversely, social parvenues who took on the external trappings of the noble classes (such as the wearing of a sword) were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action (laws on sumptuous clothing worn by bourgeois existed since the Middle Ages)..
These aristocratic values began to be criticised in the mid 17th century: Blaise Pascal for example offered a ferocious analysis of the spectacle of power and François de la Rochefoucauld posited that no human act -- however generous is pretended to be -- could be considered disinterested.

Aristocratic codes
In an attempt to restrict the proliferation of private centers of intellectual or literary life, so as to impose the royal court as the artistic center of France, Cardinal Richelieu took an existing literary gathering (around Valentin Conrart) and designated it as the official Académie française in 1634 (other original members included Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, Jean Ogier de Gombauld, Jean Chapelain, François le Métel de Boisrobert, François Maynard, Marin le Roy de Gomberville and Nicolas Faret; members added at the time of its official creation included Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Claude Favre de Vaugelas and Vincent Voiture). This process of state control of the arts and literature would be expanded even more during the reign of Louis XIV.
The expression classicism as it applies to literature implies notions of order, clarity, moral purpose and good taste. Many of these notions are directly inspired by the works of Aristotle and Horace and by classical Greek and Roman masterpieces.
In theater, a play should follow the Three Unities:
Although based on classical examples, the unities of place and time were seen as essential for the spectator's complete absorption into the dramatic action; wildly dispersed scenes in China or Africa, or over many years would -- critics maintained -- break the theatrical illusion. Sometimes grouped with the unity of action is the notion that no character should appear unexpectedly late in the drama.
Linked with the theatrical unities are the following concepts:
These rules precluded many elements common in the baroque "tragi-comedy": flying horses, chiralric battles, magical trips to foreign lands and the deus ex machina. The mauling of Hippolyte by a monster in Phèdre could only take place offstage.
These "rules" or "codes" were seldom completely followed, and many of the centuries masterpieces broke these rules intentionally to heighten emotional effect:
In 1674 there erupted an intellectual debate -- "la querelle des Anciens et des Modernes" -- on whether the arts and literature of the modern era had achieved more than the illustrious writers and artists of antiquity. The Académy was dominated by the "Moderns" (Charles Perrault, Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin) and Perrault's poem "Le Siècle de Louis le Grand" ("The Century of Louis the Great") (1687) was the strongest expression of their conviction that the reign of Louis XIV was the equal of Augustus. As a great lover of the classics, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux found himself pushed into the role of champion of the "Anciens" (his severe criticisms of Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin's poems did not help), and Jean Racine, Jean de La Fontaine and Jean de La Bruyère took his defense. Meanwhile, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and the gazette "Mercure galant" joined the "Moderns". The debate would last until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The expression "classicism" is also linked to the visual arts and architecture of the period, and most specifically to the construction of the château of Versailles, the crowning achievement of an official program of propaganda and royal glory. Although originally just a country retreat used for special festivities -- and known more for André Le Nôtre's gardens and fountains -- Versailles eventually became the permanent home of the king. By relocating to Versailles, Louis effectively avoided the dangers of Paris (in his youth, Louis XIV had suffered during the civil and parliamentary insurrection known as the Fronde) and could also keep his eye very closely on the affairs of the nobles and play them off against each other and against the newer "noblesse de robe". Versailles became a gilded cage: to leave spelled disaster for a noble, for all official charges and appointments were made there. A strict etiquette was imposed: a word or glance from the king could make or destroy a career. The king himself followed a strict daily program, and there was little privacy. Through his wars and the glory of Versailles, Louis became, to a certain degree, the arbiter of taste and power in Europe and both his château and the etiquette in Versailles were copied by the other European courts. Yet the difficult wars at the end of his long reign and the religious problems created by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the last years dark ones.

Unity of place : the setting should not change. In practice, this lead to the frequent "Castle, interior". Battles take place off stage.
Unity of time: ideally the entire play should take place in 24 hours.
Unity of action: there should be one central story and all secondary plots should be linked to it.
"Les bienséances" : literature should respect moral codes and good taste; nothing should be presented that flouts these codes, even if they are historical events.
"La vraisemblance" : actions should be believable. When historical events contradict believability, some critics counselled the latter. The criterion of believability was sometimes also used to criticize soliloquy, and in late classical plays characters are almost invariably supplied with confidents (valets, friends, nurses) to whom they reveal their emotions.
Finally, literature and art should consciously follow Horace's precept "to please and educate" (aut delectare aut prodesse est).
Corneille's "Le Cid" was criticised for having Rodrigue appear before Chimène after having killed her father, a violation of moral codes.
"La Princesse de Clèves"'s revelation to his husband of her adulterous feelings for the Duc de Nemours was criticized for being unbelievable. Classicism

Prose fiction
In France, the period following the Wars of Religion saw the appearance of a new form of narrative fiction – that some critics have since termed the "sentimental novel" – which very quickly became a literary sensation thanks to the enthusiasm of a reading public searching for delight after so many years of conflict.
These relatively short (and often realistic) novels of love (or "amours" as they are frequently called in the titles) included extensive examples of gallant letters and polite discourse, amorous dialogues, letters and poems inserted in the story; gallant conceits and other rhetorical figures. These texts played an important role in the elaboration of new modes of civility and discourse of the upper classes (leading to the notion of the noble "honnête homme"). None of these novels have been republished since the early part of the seventeenth century and they remain largely unknown today. Authors associated with "les Amours": Antoine de Nervèze, Nicolas des Escuteaux and François du Souhait.
Meanwhile, the tradition of the dark tale - coming from the tragic short story ("histoire tragique") associated with Bandello and frequently ending in suicide or murder - continued in the works of Jean-Pierre Camus and François de Rosset.

The Baroque adventure novel
Not all fiction from the first half of the century was a wild flight of fancy in far-flung lands and rarified adventurous love stories. Influenced by the international success of the picaresque novel from Spain (such as the novel Lazarillo de Tormes), and by Miguel de Cervantes's short story collection Exemplary Tales (French translations started to appear in 1614) and "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (French translation 1614-1618), the French novelists of the first half of the century also chose to describe and satirize their own era and its excesses. Other important models of satire were provided by Fernando de Rojas's "Celestina" and John Barclay's (1582-1621) two satirical works in Latin "Euphormio sive Satiricon" (1602) and "Argenis" (1621).
Agrippa d'Aubigné's "Les Aventures du baron de Faeneste" portrays the rude manners and comic adventures of a Gascon in the royal court.
Charles Sorel's "L'histoire comique de Francion" is a picaresque inspired story of the ruses and amorous dealings of a young gentleman, and his "Le Berger extravagant" is a satire of the d'Urfé-inspired pastoral, which (taking a clue from the end of "Don Quixote") has a young man take on the life of a shepherd. Despite its "realism", Sorel's works remain, none the less, highly baroque with dream sequences and inserted narrations (for example, when Francion tells of his years at school) typical of the adventure novel. This use of inserted stories also follows Cervantes who inserted a number of nearly autonomous stories into his "Quixote".
Paul Scarron's most famous work, "Le Roman comique", uses the narrative frame of a group of ambulant actors in the provinces to present both scenes of farcical comedy and sophisticated inserted tales.
Cyrano de Bergerac -- made famous by the 19th century play by Edmond Rostand -- wrote two novels that, sixty years before Gulliver's Travels or Voltaire (not to mention science-fiction), use a journey to magical lands (the moon and the sun) as pretexts for satirizing contemporary philosophy and morals. By the end of the century, Cyrano's works would inspire a number of philosophical novels in which Frenchmen travel to foreign lands and strange utopias.
The early half of the century also saw the continued popularity of the comic short story and collections of humorous discussions, such as in the "Histoires comiques" of François du Souhait; the playful, chaotic, sometimes obscene and almost unreadable Moyen de parvenir by Béroalde de Verville (a parody of books of "table talk", of Rabelais and of Michel de Montaigne's "The Essays"); the anonymous "Caquets de l'accouchée" (1622); and Molière d'Essertine's "Semaine amoureuse" (a collection of short stories).
Select list of baroque comique writers and works:
In the latter half of the century, a contemporary setting would be also used in many classical "nouvelles" (or short novels), especially as a form of moral critique of contemporary society.

Agrippa d'Aubigné (1552-1630)

• Les Aventures du baron de Faeneste (1617, 1619, 1630)
  Béroalde de Verville (1556-1626)
  
  
  
  • Le Moyen de parvenir (c.1610)
    François du Souhait (c.1570/80 - 1617)
    
    
    
    • Histoires comiques (1612)
      Molière d'Essertine (c.1600 - 1624)
      
      
      
      • Semaine amoureuse (1620)
        Charles Sorel (1602-1674)
        
        
        
        • L'histoire comique de Francion (1622)
          Nouvelles françoises (1623)
          Le Berger extravagant (1627)
          Jean de Lannel (dates?)
          
          
          
          • Le Roman satyrique (1624)
            Antoine-André Mareschal (dates?)
            
            
            
            • La Chrysolite (1627)
              Paul Scarron (1610-1660)
              
              
              
              • Virgile travesti (1648-53)
                Le Roman comique (1651-57)
                Cyrano de Bergerac (Hector Savinien) (1619-1655)
                
                
                
                • Histoire comique des Etats et Empires de la Lune (1657)
                  Histoire comique des Etats et Empires du Soleil (1662) Baroque comic fiction
                  By 1660, the multi-volume baroque historical novel had largely fallen out of fashion. The tendency was for much shorter works ("nouvelles" or "petits romans") without the complex structure or adventurous elements (pirates, shipwrecks, kidnappings). An interest in love, psychological analysis, moral dilemmas and social constraints permeates these novels. When the action was placed in an historical setting, this was increasingly a setting in the recent past, and although still filled with anachronisms, these novels showed an interest in historical detail; these are generally called "nouvelles historiques". A number of these short novels recounted the "secret history" of a famous event (like Villedieu's "Annales galantes"), linking the action generally to an amorous intrigue; these were called "histoires galantes". Some of these short novels told stories of the contemporary world (like Préchac's "L'Illustre Parisienne").
                  Important "nouvelles classiques":
                  The most famous of all of these is clearly Madame de Lafayette's La princesse de Clèves. Reduced to essentially three characters, the short novel tells the story of a married noble woman in the time of Henri II who falls in love with another man, but who reveals her passion to her husband. Although the novel includes a couple of inserted stories, on the whole the narration concentrates on the unspoken doubts and fears of the two individuals living in a social setting dominated by etiquette and moral correctness; despite the historical setting, Lafayette was clearly describing her contemporary world. The psychological analysis is close to the pessimism of La Rochefoucauld, and the abnegation of the characters leads ultimately to tragedy. For all of its force however, Madame de Lafayette's novel is not the first to have a recent historical setting or psychological depth, as some critics state; these elements can be found in novels of the decade before, and in fact are already present in certain of the "Amours" at the beginning of the century.
                  
                  Jean Renaud de Segrais Nouvelles françoises (1658)
                  Madame de Lafayette La princesse de Montpensier (1662)
                  Madame de Villedieu Journal amoureux (1669)
                  Jean Donneau de Visé Nouvelles galantes et comiques (1669)
                  Madame de Villedieu Annales galantes (1670)
                  Madame de Lafayette Zaïde (1671)
                  Madame de Villedieu Amour des grands hommes (1671)
                  César Vichard de Saint-Réal Don Carlos (1672)
                  Madame de Villedieu Les Désordres de l'amour (1675)
                  Jean de Préchac L'Héroïne mousquetaire (1677)
                  Jean de Préchac Le voyage de Fontainebleau (1678)
                  Madame de Lafayette La princesse de Clèves (1678)
                  Jean de Préchac L'Illustre Parisienne, histoire galante et véritable (1679) The "Nouvelle classique"
                  The obsessions of the "nouvelle classique" (an interest in love, psychological analysis, moral dilemmas and social constraints) are also apparent in the anonymous epistolary novel Lettres d'une religieuse portugaise ("Letters of a Portuguese Nun") (1668), attributed to Guilleragues, which were a major sensation when they were published, in part because of their perceived authenticity. These letters written by a scorned woman to her absent lover were a powerful representation of amorous passion with many similarities to the language of Racine. Other epistolary novels followed, written by Claude Barbin, Vincent Voiture, Edmé Boursault, Fontenelle (who used the form to introduce discussion of philosophical and moral matters, prefiguring Montesquieu's Lettres persanes in the 18th century) and others; actual love letters written by noble ladies (Madame de Bussy-Lameth, Madame de Coligny) were also published.
                  Antoine Furetière (1619-1688) is responsible for a longer comic novel which pokes fun at a bourgeois family: "Le Roman bourgeois" (1666). The choice of the bourgeois "arriviste" or "parvenu" (a "social climber" trying to ape the manners and style of the noble classes) as a source of mockery appears in a number of short stories and in theater of the period (such as Molière's "Bourgeois Gentihomme").
                  The long adventurous novel of love continued to exist after 1660, albeit in a far shorter form than the novels of the 1640s. Influenced as much by the "nouvelles historiques" and the "nouvelles galantes" as by the "roman d'aventures" and the "roman historique", these galant and historical novels -- whose settings range from ancient Rome to Renaissance Castille or France -- were published in to the first decades of the 18th century. Authors include: Madame Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, Mlle Charlotte-Rose de Caumont La Force, Mlle Anne de La Roche-Guilhem, Catherine Bernard, Catherine Bédacier-Durand.
                  An important history of the novel was written by Pierre Daniel Huet, Traitté de l'origine des romans (1670), which (much like theoretical discussions on theatrical "vraisemblance", "bienséance" and the nature of tragedy and comedy) stressed the need for moral utility and made important distinctions between history and the novel, and between the epic (which treats of politics and war) and the novel (which treats of love).
                  The first half of the century had seen the development of the biographical mémoire (see below), and by the 1670s this form began to be used in novels. Madame de Villedieu (her real name was Marie-Catherine Desjardins), author of a number of "nouvelles", was also the author of a longer realistic work that represented (and satirized) the contemporary world via the fictionalized "mémoires" of young woman telling her amorous and economic hardships: Mémoires de la vie d'Henriette Sylvie de Molière (1672-1674).
                  The fictional "mémoire" form was used by other novelists as well. Courtilz de Sandras's novels -- "Mémoires de M.L.C.D.R." (1687), "Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan" (1700), "Mémoires de M. de B." (1711) -- describe the world of Richelieu and Mazarin without galant clichés: spies, kidnappings, political machinations predominate. Among the other "mémoires" of the period, the most famous was the work of an Englishman Anthony Hamilton, whose "Mémoires de la vie du comte de Grammont..." was published in France in 1713 and tells of his years in the French court from 1643-1663. Many of these works were published anonymously; in some cases it is difficult to tell whether they are fictionlized or biographical. Other authors include: abbé Cavard, abbé de Villiers, abbé Olivier, le sieur de Grandchamp. The realism and occasional irony of these novels would lead directly to the novels of Alain-René Lesage, Pierre de Marivaux and Abbé Prévost in the 18th century.
                  In the 1690s, the Fairy tale began to appear in French literature. The most famous collection of traditional tales (liberally adapted) was by Charles Perrault (1697), although many others were published (such as those by Henriette-Julie de Murat and Madame d'Aulnoy). A major revolution would occur however with the appearance of Antoine Galland's first French (and indeed modern) translation of the Thousand and One Nights (or "Arabian Nights") (from 1704; another translation appeared in 1710-12), which would influence the 18th century short stories of Voltaire, Diderot and countless others.
                  The period also saw several novels with voyages and utopian descriptions of foreign cultures (in imitation of Cyrano de Bergerac, Thomas More and Francis Bacon):
                  Of similar didactic aims was Fénelon's "Les Aventures de Télémaque" (1694-6), which represents a classicist's attempt to overcome the excesses of the baroque novel: using a structure of travels and adventures (grafted onto Telemachus the son of Ulysses) Fénelon exposes his moral philosophy. This novel would be copied by numerous didactic novels in the 18th century.
                  
                  Denis Veiras - "Histoire de Sévarambes" (1677)
                  Gabrielle de Foigny - "Les Avantures de Jacques Sadeur dans la découverte et le voyage de la Terre australe" (or " la Terre australe connue") (1676)
                  Tyssot de Patot - "Voyages et Aventures de Jacques Massé" (1710) Other novelistic forms after 1660
                  Because of the new conception of "l'honnête homme" or "the honest or upright man", poetry became one of the principle modes of literary production of noble gentlemen and of non-noble professional writers in their patronage in the 17th century.
                  Poetry was used for all purposes. A great deal of 17th and 18th century poetry was "occasional", meaning that it was written to celebrate a particular event (a marriage, birth, military victory) or to solemnize a tragic occurrence (a death, militray defeat), and this kind of poetry was frequent with gentlemen in the service of a noble or the king. Poetry was the chief form of seventeenth century theater: the vast majority of scripted plays were written in verse (see "Theater" below). Poetry was used in satires (Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux is famous for his "Satires" (1666)) and in epics (inspired by the Renaissance epic tradition and by Tasso) like Jean Chapelain's La Pucelle.
                  Although French poetry during the reign of Henri IV and Louis XIII was still largely inspired by the poets of the late Valois court, some of their excesses and poetic liberties found censure, especially in the work of François de Malherbe who criticized La Pléiade's and Philippe Desportes's irregularities of meter or form (the suppression of the cesura by a hiatus, sentences clauses spilling over into the next line "enjambement", neologisms constructed from Greek words, etc.). The later 17th century would see Malherbe as the grandfather of poetic classicism.
                  The Pléiade poems of the natural world (fields and streams) were continued in the first half of the century -- but the tone was often elegiac or melancholy (an "ode to solitude"), and the natural world presented was sometimes the wild sea coast or some other rugged environment -- by poets who have been grouped by later critics with the "baroque" label (notably Théophile de Viau and Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant).
                  Poetry came to be a part of the social games in noble salons (see "salons" above), where epigrams, satirical verse, and poetic descriptions were all common (the most famous example is "La Guirlande de Julie" (1641) at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, a collection of floral poems written by the salon members for the birthday of the host's daughter). The linguistic aspects of the phenomenon associated with the "précieuses" (similar to Euphuism in England, Gongorism in Spain and Marinism in Italy) -- the use of highly metaphorical (sometimes obscure) language, the purification of socially unacceptable vocabulary -- was tied to this poetic salon spirit and would have an enormous impact on French poetic and courtly language. Although "préciosité" was often mocked (especially in the later 1660s when the phenomenon had spread to the provinces) for its linguistic and romantic excesses (often linked to a misogynistic disdain for intellectual women), the French language and social manners of the seventeenth century were permanently changed by it.
                  From the 1660s, three poets stand out. Jean de La Fontaine gained enormous celebrity through his Aesop and Phaedrus inspired "Fables" (1668-1693) which were written in an irregular verse form (different meter lengths are used in a poem). Jean Racine was seen as the greatest tragedy writer of his age. Finally, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux became the theorizer of poetic classicism: his "Art poétique" (1674) praised reason and logic (Boileau elevated Malherbe as the first of the rational poets), believability, moral usefulness and moral correctness; it elevated tragedy and the poetic epic as the great genres and recommended imitation of the poets of antiquity.
                  "Classicism" in poetry would dominate until the pre-romantics and the French Revolution.
                  Select list of French poets of the 17th century:
                  
                  François de Malherbe (1555-1628)
                  Honoré d'Urfé (1567-1625)
                  Jean Ogier de Gombaud (1570?-1666)
                  Mathurin Régnier (1573-1613) - nephew of Philippe Desportes
                  François de Maynard (1582-1646)
                  Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan (1589-1670)
                  Théophile de Viau (1590-1626)
                  François le Métel de Boisrobert (1592-1662)
                  Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant (1594-1661)
                  Jean Chapelain (1595-1674)
                  Vincent Voiture (1597-1648)
                  Tristan L'Hermite (1601?-1655)
                  Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
                  Paul Scarron (1610-1660)
                  Isaac de Benserade (1613-1691)
                  Georges de Brébeuf (1618-1661)
                  Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)
                  Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711)
                  Jean Racine (1639-1699)
                  Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu (1639-1720)
                  Jean-François Regnard (1655-1709) Poetry
                  
                  Theater
                  During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, public theatrical representations in Paris were under the control of guilds, but in the last decades of the sixteenth century only one of these continued to exist: although "les Confrères de la Passion" no longer had the right to perform mystery plays (1548), they were given exclusive rights to oversee all theatrical productions in the capital and rented out their theater (the Hôtel de Bourgogne) to theatrical troupes at a high price. In 1599, this guild abandoned its privilege which permitted other theaters and theatrical companies to eventually open in the capital.
                  In addition to public theaters, plays were produced in private residences, before the court and in the university. In the first half of the century, the public, the humanist theater of the colleges and the theater performed at court showed extremely divergent tastes. For example, while the tragicomedy was fashionable at the court in the first decade, the public was more interested in tragedy.
                  The early theaters in Paris were often placed in existing structures like tennis courts; their stages were extremely narrow, and facilities for sets and scene changes were often non-existent (this would encourage the development of the unity of place). Eventually, theaters would develop systems of elaborate machines and decors, fashionable for the chevaleresque flights of knights found in the tragicomedies of the first half of the century.
                  In the early part of the century, the theater performances took place twice a week starting at two or three o'clock. Theatrical representations often encompassed several works, beginning with a comic prologue, then a tragedy or tragicomedy, then a farce and finally a song. Nobles sometimes sat on the side of the stage during the performance. Given that it was impossible to lower the house lights, the audience was always aware of each other and spectators were notably vocal during performances. The place directly in front of the stage, without seats -- the "parterre" -- was reserved for men, but being the cheapest tickets, the parterre was usually a mix of social groups. Elegant people watched the show from the galleries. Princes, musketeers and royal pages were given free entry. Before 1630, a honest woman did not go to the theater.
                  Unlike England, France placed no restrictions on women performing on stage, but the career of actors of either sex was seen as morally wrong by the Catholic church (actors were excommunicated) and by the ascetic religious Janseanist movement. Actors typically had fantastic stage names that described typical roles or stereotypical characters.
                  In addition to scripted comedies and tragedies, Parisians were also great fans of the Italian acting troupe who performed their Commedia dell'arte, a kind of improvised theater based on types. The characters from the Commedia dell'arte would have a profound effect on French theater, and one finds echoes of them in the braggarts, fools, lovers, old men and wily servants that populate French theater.
                  Finally, it should be noted that opera came to France in the second half of the century.
                  The most important theaters and troupes in Paris:
                  Outside of Paris, in the suburbs and in the provinces, there were many wandering theatrical troupes. Molière got his start in a such a troupe.
                  The royal court and other noble houses were also important organizers of theatrical representations, court ballets, mock battles and other sorts of "divertissement" for their festivities, and in the some cases the roles of dancers and actors were held by the nobles themselves. The early years at Versailles -- before the massive expansion of the residence -- were entirely consecrated to such pleasures, and similar spectacles continued throughout the reign. Engravings show Louis XIV and the court seating outside before the "Cour du marbre" of Versailles watching the performance of a play.
                  The great majority of scripted plays in the seventeenth century were written in verse (notable exceptions include some of Molière's comedies. Samuel Chappuzeau, author of Le Théâtre François printed one comedy play in both prose and verse at different times). Except for lyric passages in these plays, the meter used was a twelve-syllable line (the "alexandrine") with a regular pause or "cesura" after the sixth syllable; these lines were put into rhymed couplets; couplets alternated between "feminine" (i.e. ending in a mute e) and "masculine" (i.e. ending in a vowel other than a mute e, or in a consonant or a nasal) rhymes.
                  
                  Hôtel de Bourgogne - until 1629, this theater was occupied by various troupes, including the ("Comédiens du Roi") directed by Vallerin Lecomte and, at his death, by Bellerose (Pierre Le Messier). The troupe became the official "Troupe Royale" in 1629. Actors included: Turlupin, Gros-Guillaume, Gautier-Gargouille, Floridor, Monfleury, la Champmeslé.
                  Théâtre du Marais (1600-1673) - this rival theater of the Hôtel de Bourgogne housed the troupe "Vieux Comédiens du Roi" around Claude Deschamps and the troupe of Jodelet.
                  'La troupe de Monsieur" - under the protection of Louis XIV's brother, this was Molière's first Paris troupe. They moved to several theaters in Paris (the Petit-Bourbon, the Palais-Royal) before combining in 1673 with the troupe of the Théâtre du Marais and becoming the troupe of the Hôtel Guénégaud.
                  La Comédie française - in 1689 Louis XIV united the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the Hôtel Guénégaud into one official troupe. Theaters and theatrical companies
                  French theater from the seventeenth century is often reduced to three great names -- Pierre Corneille, Molière and Jean Racine -- and to the triumph of "classicism"; the truth is however far more complicated.
                  Theater at the beginning of the century was dominiated by the genres and dramatists of the previous generation. Most influential in this respect was Robert Garnier. Although the royal court had grown tired of the tragedy (preferring the more escapist tragicomedy), the theater going public preferred the former. This would change in the 1630s and 1640s when, influenced by the long baroque novels of the period, the tragicomedy -- a heroic and magical adventure of knights and maidens -- became the dominant genre. The amazing success of Corneille's "Le Cid" in 1637 and "Horace" in 1640 would bring the tragedy back into fashion, where it would remain for the rest of the century.
                  The most important source for tragic theater was Seneca and the precepts of Horace and Aristotle (and modern commentaries by Julius Caesar Scaliger and Lodovico Castelvetro), although plots were taken from classical authors such as Plutarch, Suetonius, etc. and from short story collections (Italian, French and Spanish). The Greek tragic authors (Sophocles, Euripides) would become increasingly important by the middle of the century. Important models for both comedy, tragedy and tragicomedy of the century were also supplied by the Spanish playwrights Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega, many of whose works were translated and adapted for the French stage. Important theatrical models were also supplied by the Italian stage (including the pastoral), and Italy was also an important source for theoretical discussions on theater, especially with regards to decorum (see for example the debates on Sperone Speroni's play Canace and Giovanni Battista Giraldi's play Orbecche).
                  Regular comedies (i.e. comedies in five acts modeled on Plautus or Terence and the precepts of Aelius Donatus) were less frequent on the stage than tragedies and tragicomedies at the turn of the century, as the comedic element of the early stage was dominated by the farce, the satirical monologue and by the Italian commedia dell'arte. Jean Rotrou and Pierre Corneille would return to the regular comedy shortly before 1630.
                  Corneille's tragedies were strangely un-tragic (his first version of "Le Cid" was even listed as a tragicomedy), for they had happy endings. In his theoretical works on theater, Corneille redefined both comedy and tragedy around the following suppositions:
                  The history of the public and critical reaction to Corneille's "Le Cid" can be found in other articles (he was criticized for his use of sources, for his violation of good taste, and for other irregularities that did not conform to Aristotian or Horacian rules), but its impact was stunning. Cardinal Richelieu asked the newly formed Académie française to investigate and pronounce on the criticisms (it was the Academy's first official judgement), and the controversy reveals a growing attempt to control and regulate theater and theatrical forms. This would be the beginning of seventeenth century "classicism".
                  Corneille continued to write plays through 1674 (mainly tragedies, but also something he called "heroic comedies") and many continued to be successes, although the "irregularities" of his theatrical methods were increasingly criticized (notably by François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac) and the success of Jean Racine from the late 1660s signaled the end of his preeminence.
                  Select list of dramatists and plays, with indication of genre (dates are often approximate, as date of publication was usually long after the date of first performance):
                  
                  The stage -- in both comedy and tragedy -- should feature noble characters (this would eliminate many low-characters, typical of the farce, from Corneille's comedies). Noble characters should not be depicted as vile (reprehensible actions are generally due to non-noble characters in Corneille's plays).
                  Tragedy deals with affairs of the state (wars, dynastic marriages); comedy deals with love. For a work to be tragic, it need not have a tragic ending.
                  Although Aristotle says that catharsis (purgation of emotion) should be the goal of tragedy, this is only an ideal. In conformity with the moral codes of the period, plays should not show evil being rewarded or nobility being degraded.
                  Antoine de Montchrestien (c.1575-1621)
                  
                  
                  
                  • Sophonisbe a/k/a La Cathaginoise a/k/a La Liberté (tragedy) - 1596
                    La Reine d'Ecosse a/k/a L'Ecossaise (tragedy) - 1601
                    Aman (tragedy) - 1601
                    La Bergerie (pastoral) - 1601
                    Hector (tragedy) - 1604
                    Jean de Schelandre (c. 1585-1635)
                    
                    
                    
                    • Tyr et Sidon, ou les funestes amours de Belcar et Méliane (1608)
                      Alexandre Hardy (1572-c.1632) - Hardy reputedly wrote 600 plays; only 34 have come down to us.
                      
                      
                      
                      • Scédase, ou l'hospitalité violée (tragedy) - 1624
                        La Force du sang (tragicomedy) - 1625 (the plot is taken from a Cervantes short story)
                        Lucrèce, ou l'Adultère puni (tragedy) - 1628
                        Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan (1589-1670)
                        
                        
                        
                        • Les Bergeries (pastoral) - 1625
                          Théophile de Viau (1590-1626)
                          
                          
                          
                          • Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé (tragedy) - 1621
                            François le Métel de Boisrobert (1592-1662)
                            
                            
                            
                            • Didon la chaste ou Les Amours de Hiarbas (tragedy) - 1642
                              Jean Mairet (1604-1686)
                              
                              
                              
                              • La Sylve (pastoral tragicomedy) - c.1626
                                La Silvanire, ou La Morte vive (pastoral tragicomedy) - 1630
                                Les Galanteries du Duc d'Ossonne Vice-Roi de Naples (comedy) - 1632
                                La Sophonisbe (tragedy) - 1634
                                La Virginie (tragicomedy) - 1636
                                Tristan L'Hermite (1601-1655)
                                
                                
                                
                                • Mariamne (tragedy) - 1636
                                  Penthée (tragedy) - 1637
                                  La Mort de Seneque (tragedy) - 1644
                                  La Mort de Crispe (tragedy) - 1645
                                  The Parasite - 1653
                                  Jean Rotrou (1609-1650)
                                  
                                  
                                  
                                  • La Bague de l'oubli (comedy) - 1629
                                    La Belle Alphrède (comedy) - 1639
                                    Laure persécutée (tragicomedy) - 1637
                                    Le Véritable saint Genest (tragedy) - 1645
                                    Venceslas (tragicomedy) - 1647
                                    Cosroès (tragedy) - 1648
                                    Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
                                    
                                    
                                    
                                    • Mélite (comedy) - 1629
                                      Clitandre (tragicomedy, later changed to tragedy) - 1631
                                      La Veuve (comedy) - 1631
                                      La Place Royale (comedy) - 1633
                                      Médée (tragedy) - 1635
                                      L'Illusion comique (comedy) - 1636
                                      Le Cid (tragicomedy, later changed to tragedy) - 1637
                                      Horace (tragedy) - 1640
                                      Cinna (tragedy) - 1640
                                      Polyeucte ("Christian" tragedy) - c.1641
                                      La Mort de Pompée (tragedy) - 1642
                                      Le Menteur (comedy) - 1643
                                      Rodogune, princesse des Parthes (tragedy) - 1644
                                      Héraclius, empereur d'Orient (tragedy) - 1647
                                      Don Sanche d'Aragon ("heroic" comedy) - 1649
                                      Nicomède (tragedy) - 1650
                                      Sertorius (tragedy) - 1662
                                      Sophonisbe (tragedy) - 1663
                                      Othon (tragedy) - 1664
                                      Tite et Bérénice ("heroic" comedy) - 1670
                                      Suréna, général des Parthes (tragedy) - 1674
                                      Pierre du Ryer (1606-1658)
                                      
                                      
                                      
                                      • Lucrèce (tragedy) - 1636
                                        Alcione - 1638
                                        Scévola (tragedy) - 1644
                                        Jean Desmarets (1595-1676)
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        • Les Visionnaires (comedy) - 1637
                                          Erigone (prose tragedy) - 1638
                                          Scipion (verse tragedy) - 1639
                                          François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac (1604-1676)
                                          
                                          
                                          
                                          • La Cyminde - 1642
                                            La Pucelle d'Orléans - 1642
                                            Zénobie (tragedy) - 1647, written with the intention of affording a model in which the strict rules of the drama were served.
                                            Le Martyre de Sainte Catherine (tragedy) - 1650
                                            Paul Scarron (1610-1660)
                                            
                                            
                                            
                                            • Jodelet - 1645
                                              Don Japhel d'Arménie - 1653
                                              Isaac de Benserade (c.1613-1691)
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              • Cléopâtre (tragedy) - 1635 Theater under Louis XIV
                                                Briefly, here are some of the other literary achievements of the period.
                                                Moral and philosophical reflection
                                                The seventeenth century was dominated by a profound moral and religious fervor unleashed by the Counter-Reformation. Of all literary works, books of devotion were the number one best sellers of the century. New religious organisations swept the country (see for example the work of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Francis de Sales). The preacher Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704) was famous for his sermons. The theologian and orator Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) composed a number of celebrated funeral orations.
                                                Nevertheless, the century had a number of writers who were considered "libertine"; these writers (like Théophile de Viau (1590-1626) and Charles de Saint-Evremond (1610-1703)), inspired by Epicurus and the publication of Petronius, professed doubts on religious or moral matters in a period of increasingly reactionary religious fervor.
                                                René Descartes' (1596-1650) "Discours de la méthode" (1637) and "Méditations" marked a complete break with medieval philosophical reflection.
                                                An outgrowth of counter reformation catholicism, Jansenism advocated a profound moral and spiritual interrogation of the soul. This movement would attract writers such as Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine, but would eventually come under attack as being heretical (they maintained a doctrine bordering on predestination), and their monastery at Port-Royal was suppressed. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a great satirist for their cause (in his "Lettres provinciales" (1656-57)), but his greatest moral and religious work was his unfinished and fragmentary collection of thoughts justifying the Christian religion called "Les Pensées" ("The Thoughts") (the most famous section being his discussion of the "pari" or "wager" on the possible eternity of the soul).
                                                Another outgrowth of the religious fervor of the period was "Quietism" which taught practitioners a kind of spiritual trance state.
                                                François de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) wrote a collection of prose "Maximes" ("maxims") (1665) that analyzed human actions with a severe moral pessimism. Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) -- inspired by Theophrastus's characters, composed his own collection of "Characters" (1688), describing contemporary moral types. François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer wrote numerous pedagogical works for the education of the royal prince.
                                                Pierre Bayle's "Dictionnaire historique et critique" (1695-1697; enlarged 1702) with its multiplicity of marginalia and interpretations offered a uniquely discursive and multifaceted view of knowledge (distinctly at odds with French classicism) and would be a major inspiration for the Enlightenment and Diderot's Encyclopédie.
                                                Mémoires and Letters
                                                The seventeenth century is the century of biographical "mémoires". The first great outpouring of these comes from the participants of the Fronde (like the Cardinal de Retz) who used the genre as a form of political justification combined with novelistic adventure.
                                                Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (called "Bussy-Rabutin") is responsible for the scandalous "Histoire amoureuse des Gaules", a series of sketches of the amorous intrigues of the chief ladies of the court. Paul Pellisson, historian to the king, wrote a "Histoire de Louis XIV" covering the years 1660 to 1670. Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux wrote "Les Historiettes", a collection of short biographical sketches of his contemporaries.
                                                Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac's collected letters are credited with executing in French prose a reform parallel to Francois de Malherbe's in verse. Madame de Sévigné's (1626-1696) letters are considered an important document of society and literary happenings under Louis XIV. The most celebrated Mémoires of the century were not published until over a century later, those of Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (1675-1755).