Editing Jean de La Fontaine (section)

===Academy===
In 1682 he was, at more than sixty years of age, recognized as one of the foremost men of letters of France. [[Madame de Sévigné]], one of the soundest literary critics of the time, and by no means given to praise mere novelties, had spoken of his second collection of ''Fables'' published in the winter of 1678 as divine; and it is pretty certain that this was the general opinion. It was not unreasonable, therefore, that he should present himself to the [[Académie française]], and, though the subjects of his ''Contes'' were scarcely calculated to propitiate that decorous assembly, while his attachment to Fouquet and to more than one representative of the old [[Fronde]]ur party made him suspect to Colbert and the king, most of the members were his personal friends.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=69}}

He was first proposed in 1682, but was rejected for [[Marquis de Dangeau]]. The next year Colbert died and La Fontaine was again nominated. Boileau was also a candidate, but the first ballot gave the fabulist sixteen votes against seven only for the critic. The king, whose assent was necessary, not merely for election but for a second ballot in case of the failure of an absolute majority, was ill-pleased, and the election was left pending. Another vacancy occurred, however, some months later, and to this Boileau was elected. The king hastened to approve the choice effusively, adding, ''Vous pouvez incessamment recevoir La Fontaine, il a promis d'etre sage''.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|pp=69–70}}

His admission was indirectly the cause of the only serious literary quarrel of his life. A dispute took place between the academy and one of its members, [[Antoine Furetière]], on the subject of the latter's French dictionary, which was decided to be a breach of the academy's corporate privileges. Furetière, a man of no small ability, bitterly assailed those whom he considered to be his enemies, and among them La Fontaine, whose unlucky ''Contes'' made him peculiarly vulnerable, his second collection of these tales having been the subject of a police condemnation. The death of the author of the ''Roman Bourgeois'', however, put an end to this quarrel.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=70}}

Shortly afterwards La Fontaine had a share in a still more famous affair, the celebrated [[Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns|Ancient-and-Modern squabble]] in which Boileau and [[Charles Perrault]] were the chiefs, and in which La Fontaine (though he had been specially singled out by Perrault for better comparison with [[Aesop]] and [[Phaedrus (fabulist)|Phaedrus]]) took the Ancient side. About the same time (1685–1687) he made the acquaintance of the last of his many hosts and protectors, Monsieur and Madame d'Hervart, and fell in love with a certain Madame Ulrich, a lady of some position but of doubtful character. This acquaintance was accompanied by a great familiarity with Vendôme, Chaulieu and the rest of the libertine coterie of the Temple; but, though Madame de la Sablière had long given herself up almost entirely to good works and religious exercises, La Fontaine continued an inmate of her house until her death in 1693. What followed is told in one of the best known of the many stories bearing on his childlike nature. Hervart on hearing of the death, had set out at once to find La Fontaine. He met him in the street in great sorrow, and begged him to make his home at his house. ''J'y allais'' was La Fontaine's answer.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=70}}
[[File:Grave of Jean de La Fontaine, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.35|Grave of Jean de La Fontaine, [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], Paris]]

In 1692, the writer had published a revised edition of the ''Contes'', although he suffered a severe illness. In that same year, La Fontaine [[religious conversion|converted to Christianity]]. A young priest, M. Poucet, tried to persuade him about the impropriety of the ''Contes'' and it is said that the destruction of a new play was demanded and submitted to as a proof of repentance.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6mBtCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22La+Fontaine+not+only+consented+to+disavow+%22&pg=PT31 Eugene Gerurez, An essay on the life and works of Jean de la Fontaine]{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }},  ''The Fables of La Fontaine'', trans. Walter Thornbury, London and New York 1886</ref> La Fontaine received the [[Viaticum]], and the following years he continued to write poems and fables.<ref>Sanctis, Sante (2013). Religious Conversion: A Bio-Psychological Study. Routledge. p. 296</ref>

A story is told of the young duke of Burgundy, [[François Fénelon|Fénelon]]'s pupil, who was then only eleven years old, sending 50 louis to La Fontaine as a present of his own motion. But, though La Fontaine recovered for the time, he was broken by age and infirmity, and his new hosts had to nurse rather than to entertain him, which they did very carefully and kindly. He did a little more work, completing his ''Fables'' among other things; but he did not survive Madame de la Sablière much more than two years, dying on 13 April 1695 in Paris, at the age of seventy-three. When the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] opened in Paris, La Fontaine's remains were moved there. His wife survived him nearly fifteen years.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=70}}