安·德·蒙克莱田(1576-1621)
法国经济学家和剧作家。出生于1576年，是一个药剂师的儿子。在他年轻时的一次决斗中他不幸杀死了对手。为此，他到英国去避难。后来，他被允许回到法国，并且建立了一个钢铁制造厂。1621年，他放弃了企业而投身于国内战争的雨格诺教徒那一派。他参加了美茵和诺曼底的部队，1621年10月8日，他在靠近托瑞勒斯的一场小冲突中被杀死。
1615年，他出版了一本非常有价值的小册子，就是著名的《献给国王和王后的政治经济学》。这本书中，蒙克莱田是第一次使用了“政治经济学”这个名词。但这里的“政治”与我们现在一般使用的“政治”概念不同，它是国家范围或社会范围的意思。“政治经济学”就是指所研究的是国家范围和社会范围的经济问题，突破了以往研究社会经济问题只局限于研究家庭经济或庄园经济，或只作为某一学说的组成部分的格局。
ANTOINE DE MONTCHRETIEN
MONTCHRETIEN, ANTOINE DE (1575 or 1576-1621), French dramatist and economist, son of an apothecary at Falaise named Mauchrestien, was born about 1576. In one of his numerous duels he had the misfortune to kill his opponent. He consequently took refuge in England, but through the influence of James I., to whom he dedicated his tragedy, LEcossaise, he was allowed to return to France, and established himself at Auxonne-sur-Loire, where he set up a steel foundry. In 1621 he abandoned this enterprise to serve on the Huguenot side in the civil wars. He raised troops in Maine and Lower Normandy, but was killed in a skirmish near Tourailles on the 8th of October 1621. There is no evidence that he shared the religious opinions of the party for which he fought, and in any case he belonged to the moderate party rallied round Henry IV. In 1615 he published a valuable Trait de lconomie politique, based chiefly on the works of Jean Bodin. He had the good fortune to write before the pruning processes of Vaugelas and Balzac had been applied to the language, and M. Lanson praises him as one of the best prose-writers of his time.
His dramas are Sophonisbe (1596), afterwards remodelled as La Carte ginoise; LEcossaise, Les Lacnes, David, Aman (in i6oI); Hector (1604). As plays they have little technical merit, but they contain passages of great lyrical beauty. In LEcossaise Elizabeth first pardons Mary Queen of Scots, and no explanation is given of the change that leads to her execution. Aman has been compared not too unfavourably with Esther, and the hatred of Haman for Mordecai is expressed with more vigour than in Racines play. All Montchrtiens heroes face death without fear. M. Petit de Julleville finds the characteristic note of his plays in the same cult of heroism which was later to inspire the plays of Corneille. Poet, economist, ironmaster, and soldier, Montchrtien represents the many-sided activity of a time before literature had become a profession, and before its province had been restricted in France to polite topics.
The tragedies were edited in 1901 by M. Petit de Julleville with notice and commentary; the Trait de lconomie politique in 1889 by Th. Funck Brentano, whose estimate of Montchrtien is severely criticized by W. I. Ashley in the Rug. Hist. Rev. (Oct. 1891). See also Emile Faguet, La Tragdie au XVI siivle, ch. xi. (1883); G. Lansoo, Revue des deux mondes (Sept. 1891).
