1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bossu, René le

BOSSU, RENÉ LE (1631–1680), French critic, was born in Paris on the 16th of March 1631. He studied at Nanterre, and in 1649 became one of the regular canons of Sainte-Geneviève. He wrote Parallèle des principes de la physique d’Aristote et de celle de René Descartes (1674), and a Traité du poème épique, highly praised by Boileau, the leading doctrine of which was that the subject should be chosen before the characters, and that the action should be arranged without reference to the personages who are to figure in the scene. He died on the 14th of March 1680.