SCARRON, Paul (1610-1660), poet, dramatist, novelist, and husband of Madame de Maintenon, was born or at least baptized on the 4th July 1610. His father, of the same name, was a man of position, and a member of the parlement of Paris. Paul the younger (who is said to have quarrelled with his stepmother) became an abbé, was not ill-allowanced, and travelled to Rome in 1634. Ho returned and became a well-known figure in literary and fashionable society. A wild story used to be told of his having (when in residence at his canonry of Le Mans) tarred and feathered himself as a carnival freak, of his having been obliged to take refuge from popular wrath in a swamp, and of his consequent deformity from rheumatism. The simple fact seems to be that in 1637 he had an attack of fever with the usual sequelae of rheumatic attacks, and that he put himself into the hands of a quack doctor. This at least is how Tallemant tells the story, though he substitutes a less creditable disease for fever. What is certain is that Scarron, after having been in perfect health for nearly thirty years, passed twenty more in a state of miserable deformity and pain. His head and body were twisted, and his legs became useless. Nevertheless he bore up against his sufferings with invincible courage, though they were complicated by his inheriting nothing from his father, and by the poverty and miscouduct of his sisters, whom he supported. For a few years he really held a benefice at Le Mans, but was then in no case to play pranks. It is said, however, that here he conceived the idea of the Roman Comique and wrote the drama of Jodelet, which gave a nickname to the actor who performed it. In 1646 he returned to Paris and worked hard for the booksellers, from the name of one of whom he is said to have called ...