Bartas

Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste du, the son of a treasurer of France, was born in 1544. In the service of Henry IV. he went as envoy to England, Denmark, and Scotland, commanding also a troop of horse. He took to poetry, and his chief work, La Sepmaine, or Week of Creation, was translated into English by Sylvester, 1598. It won much admiration from Spenser, Ben Jonson, and the authors of the period, and exercised some influence on English literature. To modern taste it seems a most dull and pointless production. A second Week was published later. Du Bartas died in 1590 from wounds received at the battle of Ivry.