338 
Of Caricature 
and 
Grotqfkue 
and he had been obliged to retire to a place of concealment, from 
whence he fometimes paid a ftealthy vilit to her court. His place of 
valet-de-chamlre was given to a man of talents, even more remarkable, 
and who Ihared equally the perfonal elteem of the queen of Navarre, 
Bonaventure des Periers. Marot's fucceifor paid a graceful compliment 
to him in a {hort poem entitled "L'Apol0gie de Marot abfent," 
publiihed in I53 7. The earlier part of the year following witnefled the 
publication of the mott remarkable work of Bonaventure des Periers, the 
" Cymbalum Mundi," concerning the real character of which writers are 
{till divided in opinion. In it Des Periers introduced a new form of 
fatire, imitated from the dialogues of Lucian. The book couflfts of four 
dialogues, written in language which forms a model of French compo- 
tition, the perfonages introduced in them intended evidently to reprefent 
living characters, whofe names are concealed in anagrams and other 
devices, among whom was Clement Marot. It was the boldett declara- 
tion of fcepticifm which had yet iffued from the Epicurean fchool repre- 
fented by Rabelais. The author fneers at the Romilh church as an 
impoiture, ridicules the Proteftants as feekers after the philofopher's Hone, 
and (hows difrefpect to Chrittiauity itfelf. Such a book could hardly be 
publilhed in Paris with impunity, yet it was printed there, fecretly, it is 
faid, by a well-known bookfeller, Jean Morin, in the Rue St. Jacques, 
and therefore in the immediate vicinity of the perfecuting Sorbonne. 
Private information had been given of the character of this work, poiiibly 
by the printer himfelf or by one of his men, and on the 6th of March, 
I 538, when it was on the eve of publication, the whole imprethou was 
feized at the printer's, and Morin himfelf was arrelted and thrown into 
prifon. He was treated rigoroufly, and is underilood to have efcaped 
only by difavowing all knowledge of the character of the book, and 
giving up the name of the author. The firft edition of the " Cymbalum 
Mundi" was burnt, and Bonaventure des Periers, alarmed by the 
perfonal dangers in which he was thus involved, retired from the court of 
the queen of Navarre, and took refuge in the city of Lyons, where liberal 
opinions at that time found a greater degree of tolerance than ellewhere. 
There he printed a fecond edition of the "Cymbalum Mundi," which 
alfo