Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Paris,1657; Leiden, 1659 (Google Books)

Lister read this work on February 4 1663/4.  It was full of subversive observations on the public reputations of a variety of public figures and also featured witty conversations that Balzac had with a variety of his literary colleagues.

For example, Balzac wrote of the constant spitting of the French poet François de Malherbe (1555-1628), that he had never known

d’homme plus humide, ny de poète plus sec [of a man more wet, nor of a poet more dry].