Costar, Peter

, a bachelor of the Sorbonne, was born 1603 at Paris, son of a hatter. He had neither the taste, learning, nor merit, of M de Girac, but was not ignorant, as that writer accuses him of being, in his dispute upon Voiture. M. du Rueil, bishop of Bayonne, and afterwards of Angers, wished to have Costar always about him as a literary man, and gave him many benefices. He was eagerly received at the Hotel de Rambouillet, and in the best companies, notwithstanding his affected airs’; for which reason it was said, “He was the most beauish pedant, and most pedantic beau, that ever was known.” He died May 13, 1660. Besides his works in defence of Voiture, against M. de Girac, there is a collection of his Letters in 2 vols. 4to, containing much literary anecdote and criticism, the latter rather in a frivolous taste, which is likewise visible in some other of his pieces. ²