1829.] Corneille ; Ids Life a7id Writings. 611 



parasite, and a quantity of other characters, taken chiefly from the old 

 Italian theatre — as in our oAvn times farces are written for Liston, and 

 pantomimes for Grimaldi. In Melitc there were none of these persons. 

 CorneiUe himself, in speaking of it, says, " It was my first effort, and 

 it is very probably deficient in some of the rules of the drama; for 

 when I wrote it I did not know that such rules existed. With a little 

 common sense, and the example of Hardy, whose genius was more 

 prolific than polished, for my only guide, and my only rules, I had 

 convinced myself that the unity of action was necessary to embroil 

 four lovers by a single intrigue; and for the same reasons I had 

 conceived so strong an aversion for the horrible irregularity which would 

 represent Paris, Rome, and Constantinople on the same stage, that I 

 resolved to confine my play to a single city." Although, therefore, it 

 must be admitted that there is a great want of probability and of inge- 

 nuity in the construction of this drama, there is a neatness in the dialogue, 

 a propriety and natural grace in the characters, and an interest in the 

 intrigue to which the French stage had before been a total stranger. 

 The play was successful on its first representation ; but not so much so 

 on that, or on the two following nights, as to give any promise of tlie 

 vogue which it afterwards acquired. The public then began to appre- 

 ciate it. The theatre, which had before been in a state of great depression, 

 immediately revived. The whole town flocked to see it, and the author, 

 who had at first been desirous of keeping his name concealed, lest its 

 obscurity should injure the success of his play, was at once inquired after 

 by the persons about the court, then the patrons of the drama, and made 

 a journey to Paris to enjoy the distinction he had earned. His destiny 

 was now cast ; and, although he did not renounce his forensic employ- 

 ments, they afforded him, or perhaps he made them afford him, time for 

 pursuing the somewhat incompatible career in which he had engaged. 

 He produced in rapid succession, his tragi-comedy, called Clifandre, and 

 his comedies of La Fem^e ; on le Traitrepimi, and oi La Galerie du Palais. 

 The Palais de Justice, Avhich furnishes the title to the latter piece, was 

 then a public rendezvous, something like what St. Paul's was in London 

 in the reign of James I. It was filled also by the best shops in the city, 

 and was frequented by the gentlemen upon town, folks from the country, 

 gossips and idlers of all kinds. By means of the personages of this 

 drama, the author, for the first time, gave his countrymen a specimen of 

 that sort of comedy which seeks to represent " the living manners as 

 they rise" in the very local colours peculiarly belonging to them. For 

 this reason nearly all the interest which made it then a great favourite, is 

 now extinguished ; but it has still a value independent of its poetical 

 merits, inasmuch as it contains many curious details of customs and 

 habits, all other traces of v/hich are worn away. Before the period of 

 this comedy, the dialogue of most of the theatrical pieces which had any 

 pretensions to humour, were marked by a grossness and indecency, com- 

 mon indeed to the age, but yet so shocking to the existing notions of 

 feminine delicacy, that women coiJd not be induced to play in them. 

 Corneille, prompted by no fastidiousness, but by the natural manliness 

 of his disposition, did much to remedy this vice, and particularly by 

 substituting for la nourrice, * (a remnant of tlie old Latin comedy) a 



" Les propos tenus par ce personnage allaient ordinaircment jusqu'ii la liccnre ; aussi ce 

 ton oblig(5 ct le mancpie d'aclrices sur les tlitatres d'alors avaient-ils fait confier ccs roles a 

 un ftctcur nomm6 Alizon, qui les jouait sous le masque. Alixon s'en tint ii certaines 



4 I 2 



