Note 162 — Chapter IV · DIDEROT AND THE FRENCH TRANSITION.

Cf. p. 160, vol. vi. ed. cit. “Vous avez péché contre les règles d’Aristote, d’Horace, de Vida, et de Le Bossu.” Even if (as so much else in the book is) this was partly suggested by Sterne, it is none the less a genuine fling of Diderot’s own irony and recalcitrance. And an indignant note of the earlier edition of Brière, shocked in 1821 at the substitution of Le Bossu (then much forgotten) for Boileau, who was, though on the eve of dethronement, in full dictatorship, is a valuable document for us, and for this chapter.