Abstract: Rhetorical treatises such as those by Bary and Morvan de Bellegarde, like the collections of remarks by Vaugelas and Bonhours, focus on the correct use of epithets, of which they try to limit the copia by making a sensible choice of collocations. Far from taking a normative perspective, the authors demonstrate a taste for the novel and piquant which establishes a definition of literature in which propriety and elegance are linked to the poetry of language.
