APIA DE

FRANCOIS

See also:

• TIMOLEON (c. 411-337 B.C.)

TIMOLEON

See also:

• APIA DE FRANCOIS TIMOLEON CHOISY (1644-1724)

CHOISY (1644-1724)  , French author, was born in Paris on the 16th of August 1644, and died in Paris on the end of October 1724 . His father was attached to the household of the duke of Orleans, and his mother, who was on intimate terms with Anne of Austria, was regularly called upon to amuse Louis XIV . By a whim of his mother, the boy was dressed like a girl until he was eighteen, and, after appearing for a short time in man's costume, he resumed woman's dress on the advice—doubtless satirical—of Madame de La Fayette . He delighted in the most extravagant toilettes until he was publicly rebuked by the duc de Montausier, when he retired for some time to the provinces, using his disguise to assist his numerous intrigues . He had been made an abbe in his childhood, and poverty, induced by his extravagance, drove him to live on his benefice at Sainte-Seine in Burgundy, where he found among his neighbours a kindred spirit in Bussy-Rabutin . He visited Rome in the suite of the cardinal de Bouillon in 1676, and shortly afterwards a serious illness brought about a sudden and rather frivolous conversion to religion . In 1685 he accompanied the chevalier de Chaumont on a mission to Siam . He was ordained priest, and received various ecclesiastical preferments . He was admitted to the Academy in 1687, and wrote a number of historical and religious works, of which the most notable are the following:---Quatre dialogues sur l'immortalite de l'dme . . . (1684), written with the Abbe Dangeau and explaining his conversion; Traduction de l'Imitation de Jesus-Christ (1692); Histoire de France sous les regnes de Saint Louis ... de Charles V et Charles VI (5 vols., vol. iii .