Frischlin was considered one of the best Latin poets of post-
classical times; but his genius was marred by his immoderate and bitter
temper, which caused him to imagine that the gentle banter and jocular
remarks of his acquaintances were insults to be repaid by angry invective
and bitter sarcasm, with which his writings abound.
Clement Marot was one of the most famous of early French poets, and the
creator of the school of naive poetry in which La Fontaine afterwards so
remarkably excelled. His poetical version of the Psalms was read and sung
in many lands; and in spite of prohibition copies could not be printed so
fast as they were eagerly bought. They were at one time as popular in the
Court of Henry II. of France as they were amongst the Calvinists of Geneva
and Holland. In 1521 we find him fighting in the Duke of Alencon's army,
when he was wounded at the battle of Pavia. Then his verses caused their
author suffering, and he was imprisoned on the charge of holding heretical
opinions. His epistles in poetry written to the King contain a record of
his life, his fear of imprisonment, his flight, his arrest by his enemies
of the Sorbonne, his release by order of the King, and his protestations
of orthodoxy. But he seems to have adopted the principles of the
Reformation, and France was no safe place for him. In Geneva and Piedmont
he found resting-places, and died in 1544.
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