Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1 November 1636 - 13 March 1711), often known simply as Boileau, was a French poet and critic. He was greatly influenced by Horace. This book proved to have a lasting influence on the future shape of English literature-among others, it was imitated magnificently by Alexander Pope in his "An Essay on Criticism, " who also took Lutrin as a model for his own masterpiece, The Rape of the lock.