minded as to back, with his all-powerful influence, the cabal of a herd of low scribblers who believed themselves to be men of genius because they were pensioned by the Cardinal-minister. The Académie Française was required 5 to examine Corneille's tragedy, and to give an elaborate criticism of it; the newly constituted company of 'the forty immortals' set about its task with the sincere desire of being impartial without offending Richelieu; and its compterendu, as it would now be called, will remain, to quote 10 M. Gérusez, as 'un document de critique consciencieuse et timorée.'

By the protection with which they surrounded dramatic literature, Richelieu, and Louis XIV after him, contributed much to render theatrical amusements popular amongst the 15 higher classes of society, who formerly considered it beneath

their dignity to take a part in a recreation which every one could enjoy if he had the means of paying for it. The coarseness of the old drama had rendered it impossible for ladies to frequent the theatre; they now gladly joined in 20 applauding the beauties of a production which appealed to the noblest feelings of the heart, and thus they helped on the moral reform of the stage.

The performances used to take place in the day-time, beginning at about half-past two, and not extending beyond 25 two hours. Nothing could be simpler than the whole 'getting up' of a representation. The stage was a kind of rough platform slightly raised; a few rudely painted pieces of canvas formed the scenery; the lighting consisted of a row of tallow candles placed in front of the per30 formers. As the boxes were so awkwardly arranged that it was next to impossible for their occupants to see or even hear anything of the play, the fashionable young men of the period used to sit on forms placed round the stage; there they could not only see, but be seen, which was what 35 they chiefly cared for. It was not until 1759 that the banquettes were cleared away, thus allowing to the actors

greater freedom in their movements, and also restoring a certain amount of scenic illusion.

In the second half of the seventeenth century Paris boasted of five theatres; but by a declaration issued August 25, 1680, Louis XIV reduced them to three, and from that epoch 5 we may date the creation of what is commonly called 'le théâtre Français' or 'la comédie Française,' that is to say, the playhouse devoted to the performance of the French classical drama. The king himself went into all the details of this new institution, fixing the number of the actors, 10 the quota of the profits to which they were respectively entitled, &c. He assigned to them an annual pension of 12,000 livres, and took under his immediate protection those whom he authorized to style themselves 'les comédiens ordinaires du Roi.' Thanks to this new régime, French dramatic 15 literature rose to a position of glory and influence which it has never equalled since.

Corneille's characters were heroes; they seemed to stand higher than human nature, and to excite our awe rather than our sympathy. Racine painted men as they are, dis- 20 figured by their weaknesses, and led astray by their passions; and as he represented with the most scrupulous fidelity and the deepest pathos the struggle between duty and inclination, he could scarcely fail to command the applause of the intelligent part of the public. And yet a powerful faction 25 arrayed itself against him; he had to fight his way to glory in spite of the combined opposition of mediocrity, of jealousy, and of those who thought that Corneille's reputation was in danger of being ruined by the talent of the author of Andromaque. I need not here describe once more the 30 various incidents of this literary feud, in which Racine's enemies endeavoured to puff up into celebrity the ridiculous Pradon. Referring the reader for an account of this episode to the biographical notice contained in the second volume of the present series, I shall proceed to say a few words 35 about the origin of the French opera. It was Cardinal

Mazarin who introduced it into France, about the year 1644. A dramatic representation, where the interest created by the tragedy itself was heightened through the additional prestige of dancing, music, and scenic transformations, must 5 have produced a great effect at first, and, naturally enough, it became very popular. The performance of Orpheus, at the opera in 1647, was considered a startling event. The name of 'comédie à machines' was also generally applied to these plays on account of the complicated accessories they 10 required in the way of decoration, stage properties, &c. Madame de Motteville thus describes, in her Memoirs, under the date of 1647, the wonderful sight which the interior of the opera-house presented to the entranced spectators:

'Le lundi il y eut bal qui se donna sur le théâtre dans 15 une salle faite à machines, qui se plaçait en ce lieu en un moment, ce qui parut la plus belle chose qui se pût voir. Elle était dorée et faite par grands cadres avec des tableaux qui, peints en perspective, étaient un agréable objet à ceux qui occupaient l'amphithéâtre. Cette salle était aussi toute 20 meublée de siéges et de carreaux qui se trouvaient placés dans des niches qui étaient tout autour, sans que la main des hommes parût y avoir quelque part. Au bout d'en haut se trouvait un trône élevé de quatre ou cinq degrés, fournis de carreaux, de chaises à bras et d'un dais au 25 dessus, de toile d'or et d'argent avec de la crépine digne d'un tel ameublement. Quatre grands chandeliers de cristal éclairaient cette salle qui paraissait un véritable enchantement, et qui dans nos jours nous représentait le siècle d'Urgande et d'Armide.'

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The taste for operatic performances rapidly increased, and the Abbé Perrin undertook to compose French lyric tragedies for which Cambert wrote the music. His Ariane (Ariadne) was brought out in the principal hall of the Hôtel de Nevers, then occupied by Cardinal Mazarin's library. 35 About the same time Corneille's Toison d'Or, 'pièce à machines,' as it was called, appeared at the château of Neu

bourg in Normandy. Finally, Perrin obtained, by letters patent, registered June 26, 1667, the authorization of organizing, for the space of twelve years, in Paris and also in other French towns, musical academies ('académies de musique') where dramatic works should be performed. The 5 letters patent expressly stated that both gentlemen and ladies of noble birth might take part in these performances. In the year 1671 the opera of Pomone, set to music by Cambert to Perrin's libretto, obtained an immense success.

It was, however, to the combined genius of Quinault and 10 Lully that the French opera owed, during the seventeenth century, its greatest reputation. These two authors brought out in 1672 an opera named 'Les Fêtes de Bacchus et de l'Amour,' diversified by ballets in which several noblemen of the court of Versailles distinguished themselves as dancers. 15 Before the year 1681, men alone were allowed to appear on the stage, as part of the corps de ballet, and the innovation of female dancers occurred for the first time when the Triomphe de l'Amour was represented. Lully and Quinault kept steadily improving the particular style of dramatic com- 20 position to which they had applied themselves, and the opera of Armide, the last which they wrote together, may be safely called a masterpiece. I have made use of the word 'genius' in speaking of Quinault: in order to justify this expression, I may perhaps be allowed to quote the authority 25 of the late Mr. Hallam. 'Quinault,' he says, 'is not only the earliest, but by general consent the unrivalled poet of French music. Boileau indeed treated him with undeserved scorn, but probably through dislike of the tone he was obliged to preserve, which in the eyes of so stern a judge, and one so 30 insensible to love, appeared languid and effeminate. Quinault nevertheless was not incapable of vigorous and impressive poetry; a lyric grandeur distinguishes some of his songs; he seems to possess great felicity of adorning every subject with appropriate imagery and sentiment; his versification has a 35 smoothness and charm of melody which has made some say

that the lines were already music before they came to the composer's hands; his fables, whether taken from mythology or modern romance, display invention and skill. Voltaire, La Harpe, Schlegel, and the author of the Life of Quinault in 5 the Biographie Universelle, but, most of all, the testimony of the public, have compensated for the severity of Boileau.'

It is as unjust to cry down real talent as it is to puff up mediocrity, and therefore every critic who deals with the history of French dramatic literature during the seventeenth Io century is bound to protest in the name of Quinault against the unjust sentence of him who has been called 'l'arbitre du goût;' the author of Les Rivales, and of La Mère Coquette, was certainly no ordinary poet. Besides Quinault, Molière and Corneille must be named on the list of opera-composers.

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In the meanwhile the comic drama had also undergone a complete transformation, and Molière's L'Étourdi, performed for the first time at Lyons in 1653, showed that the French stage was determined to cast off the last remains of its old and rough traditions. The details supplied by the 20 following biographical sketch preclude the necessity of my saying anything further here on the subject of 'le contemplateur,' but I cannot refrain from quoting once more Mr. Hallam, and of joining with him in saying that 'if the French theatre has, in later times, as is certainly the case, produced 25 some excellent comedies, we have, I believe, no reason to contradict the suffrage of the nation itself, that they owe almost as much to what they have caught from this great model, as to the natural genius of their authors.'

Regnard must be named next to Molière, although longo 30 intervallo. His two celebrated plays, Le Joueur and Le Légataire Universel, are remarkable for the consummate skill with which the plot is put together, and the originality of the leading characters represented. Regnard's liveliness, however, is often too broad, and in this respect he is inferior 35 to Dancourt, whose vis comica has a great deal more affinity with that of Molière. It is unfortunate that Dancourt should