Bellocq, Peter

, valet-de-chambre to Louis XIV, and trainbearer to the queen Maria Teresa, and afterwards to the duchess of Burgundy, dauphiness of France, was a French poet and wit of considerable fame. He was born at Paris in 1645. The most esteemed of his poems are *' Les Petits-maitres,“and” Les Nouvellistes,“two satires, and his poem on the” Hotel des invalides." Several other of his pieces are to be found in the collections, particularly in that published at the Hague in 1715, 2 vols. He lived in friendship with Moliere and Racine, but incurred the displeasure of Boileau by writing against his Satire on Women, which Boileau revenged by giving him a place, not of the most honourable kind, in his tenth epistle; but Bellocq having apologised, Boileau erased his name, and put in that of Pen-in. Bellocq died Oct. 4, 1704. He was highly respected by his royal master, and his wit and agreeable manners introduced him as a welcome guest in every polite company.²