(JIO Conicille ; his Life and Writings. [^Dec. 



born in the same year in which his first play {Melite) was acted. He 

 received his education in the Jesuits' college at Rouen ; and, on quitting it 

 in 1627, began to practise as an advocate at the bar of his native city. 

 As he had not then attained the age which was deemed an essential qua- 

 lification for the exercise of his functions, he obtained a patent of dispen- 

 sation, a circumstance for which he might be indebted to his father's 

 influence, but which at least proves that he had then made such progress 

 as in the opinion of his friends justified this distinction. With what 

 success he practised is not known, but a circumstance happened shortly 

 after he commenced his office, which developed liis talent for the drama. 

 Fontenelle, of whom the poet was the great uncle, says, " A young man 

 introduced one of his friends to a lady with whom he was in love ; the 

 new-comer succeeded in displacing- the former lover : — the adventure 

 made him a poet, and furnished him with the subject of a comedy ; and this 

 poet was — the great Corneille."* It is impossible now to ascertain the accu- 

 racy of this statement, which Fontenelle knew only by means of a vague 

 tradition ; but Corneille Iiimself says repeatedly, that love first inspired 

 him with a taste for poetry. It is certain, however, that Melite, the 

 comedy alluded to, and the subject of which resembles the adventure 

 related by Fontenelle, clever as it was, by no means announced that 

 genius v/hicli in its more sublime displays gained for its possessor the 

 appellation of " the great Corneille." The approbation which the 

 perusal of his first comedy drew from his friends, naturally induced him 

 to wish to have it represented, and for this purpose he entrusted it to 

 Mondory, the manager of a company of players who were then visiting 

 Rouen. Jlondory was one of the best actors of his day, wrote verses 

 which were as good as those of the greater part of his cotemporaries, and 

 enjoj's the credit of having first attempted to reform the absurd costumes, 

 which then, and for a long time afterwards, continued to render the stage 

 ridiculous. Upon reading the play, he thought it much too good to be 

 acted for the first time in Rouen, and easily persuaded Corneille to let 

 him take it with him to Paris, where it was brought out under his care 

 in 1(329. 



To appreciate the true merits of Melite, with respect to its author, the 

 state of the French stage at the period of its first appearance should be 

 considered ; for looking at it in any other point of view, it is unques- 

 tionably a very inferior performance. The personages of the drama 

 at that time consisted of certain characters which custom had long sanc- 

 tioned, and which the actors had so completely made their own, that 

 the authors, whatever degi'ee of novelty they might invent for their sub- 

 jects, were compelled to make the persons always the same ; and 

 thus every comedy contained of necessity, besides the lovers and their 

 adversaries, either fathers or guardians, a buffoon servant, a doctor, or 



• In the excuse a Arista, he says — 



" J'adorais done Phihs, et la secrete estime 

 Que ce divin esprit faisait de notre rime, 

 Ble fit devenir poete aussitot qu'amoureux ; 

 Elle eut mes premiers vers, elle eut mes premiers feiix." 

 And in a poem printed at the end of his Clitandre, among others, which he says he 

 added, not so much from a persuasion of their merit, as to satisfy the importunities of his 

 bookseller, "pourgrossir son livre." 

 " Par la j'appris a rimer, 

 Par la je fis, sans autre chose, 

 Un sot en vers d'un sot en prose." 



