16 Sketch of the History of Literature in Europe, &Cc. [Aug. I, 



probability and decorum, what at prefent 



xs named imhrogHo, tbat is to fay, dif- 



guifes of fex, forced iniftakcs, tricks of 



\alets, in a word, all thofe grofs devices 



which had fallen into difrepute amongll 



MS ever fiuce Moliere had taught true co- 



Biedy, confifting of plot, manners, and 



characters, but which in our days have 



again appeared and trium|jhed in our 



theatres, becauic the multitude mull have 



nuveltv, and notlnng appears to them 



more new than that which has not been 



fecn for an hundred years. 



Style, which is more immediately al- 

 lied than is generally perceived to the ge- 

 neral charatter of compoiition, becaufe it 



is niofi natural to exprcfs ourfehes as v.e 



think, — Ityle was not njorejuft than the 



plan of theie works. It was that of the 



Italian farces, the jargon of Trivelin and 



Scaramouche. This low comic humour, 



calculated for the populace, and not for 



perfons of talle, was fo much in favour, 



that in heroic comedy or tragi-comedy 



there was ufually a buffoon, who was the 



graciolh of the Spaniards ; and they are 



found even in the early operas of 



Quinault, who, however, finiflied by ba- 



nilliing them from the lyric Icene, as tlie 



great Corneiilc drove them from French 



tragedy in the Cid, which was at firft re- 



profcntcd under the title of tra^i-co- 



medy. 



This paffion for buffoonery gave birth 



to another fpecies of burlefque, which 



had alfo its reign, of which Scarron was 



the hero. But to unite the two extremes 



<)f bad taflc, there prevailed at the fame 



time another kind ofalfeCtation, the llyle 

 called priciciix, w hich is the abufe of de- 

 licacj', as the burlefque is of gaiety. A 

 fociety which is no longer fpoken of but 

 to ridicule it, but which, by its rank, had 

 inmienfe influence, the fot-iety at the fa- 

 mous hotel of Rambouillet, contributed 

 to prefcrve that obfcure and affected lan- 

 g;u\igc which v\as taken for exquiiite po- 

 litenc fs, and was no more than the pe- 

 dantry of wit replacing the pedantry of 

 erudition. If we recollect that it was 

 Eichelicu, Conde, IMontaufier, and other 

 eminent perfons, w ho frequented this ce- 

 lebrated houfe, where bve and poetry 

 ■were fubmitted to the moft fophifticated 

 analyfis, we fhall readily conceive that 

 thefe characters, fo great in their refpec- 

 tive claffes, could not be very good mat- 

 ters in matters of tafie. As to the men 

 of letters who affenibled there, they were 

 Chapelain, who, not having yet publiffiod 

 his Pucelle, paffed for the greatcii of po- 

 ets j Weiiaye, who did not want infor- 



mation and tafte, fmce he w-as the firft to 

 do jufHce to the fatire of ]\Iolicrc, when 

 that comic writer produced iii* Precieujes 

 ridkulet ; and Voiture, of all the wits 

 the mofl fafhionable ; who, welcome at 

 Court, where he held honourable offices, 

 — a man of the world and a man of let- 

 ters, — enjoyed one of thofe impoling re- 

 put:;tion» which it is dangerous to attack, 

 and before whom Boileau hiuifelf, then 

 indeed young, proftrated himfelf, as did. 

 all France. 



The hotel of Rambouillet had its ufe. 

 It fanrtioned the fafliion of employing 

 the mind on every thing, and it is by that 

 we muft begin. We learn after to em- 

 ploy on enrh objcCt only the fort of ta- 

 lent that 1.5 fuited to it, and by that it is 

 we ought to finifli : — it is the abridgement 

 and perfection of tafic. 



The true fchool of tafte was opened at 

 Port-Royal ; and if the fpirit of party 

 feduced the great men belonging to 

 that fociety into unhappy quarrels 

 which dilturbed their age, we here only 

 confider them as the benefactors of let- 

 ters, and we muft render homage to the 

 monuments they have left us. Heirs 

 and difciplcs of the literature of the an- 

 cients, they taught us to become the 

 fame. The excellent coiu-fe of ftudies 

 which they directed ; their principles of 

 grammar and logic ; th(3ir elementarj 

 hooks, which have furnilhed fo many 

 helps for tlie learning of the languages ; 

 all their works written with judgment and 

 great purity ; and that merit which be- 

 longs only to fuperiority t(j know how to 

 defcend for the |)ur]iof"e of inftruClion ; — 

 thefe are their titles with polterily, and 

 thefe fervcd to confummate the revolu- 

 tion which tafle looked for to enlighten 

 genius. To fay all in one word, it was 

 from I heir fchool that proceeded Pafcal 

 and Kaciiie ; Pal'cal, who gave us the 

 firll work in which the language appear- 

 ed fixed and polilhed, and in whicli all 

 modes of eloquence were included ; Ra- 

 cine, the eternal model of French poetry. 



Tlicfe names characterize the epoch 

 which we flill wamc the — Age of Louis 

 XIV. ^^^ 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 



SIK, 



YOUR Correfpondent Philomathos 

 having la(t month requelteil an ac- 

 count of the late John Iluddlellone 

 Wynne, — and being, not without rcafon, 

 diffatistied with what has already been 

 publifhed refpecling that author, — agree- 

 ably to his ^^■ilh, as his eldefl and only fur- 

 vivins 



