f)12 Corne'lUe ; his Life and Writings. |^Dec. 



part whicli was played by men in the dress of women, that of la suivanle, 

 which Avas acted by a female, and which became afterwards a great 

 favourite on the French stage. Corneille's next comedy bore the title of 

 his new personage. La Suivante. 



The success of the last mentioned pieces induced him to compose 

 another on a similar plan of which La Place Roi/ale, then as much a 

 place of resort for the fashionable society of Paris, as the gallery of the 

 Palais de Justice was for the more common curious, and idle, furnished 

 him with the subject and the title, and the success of which was at least 

 equal to those which had preceded it. 



Louis XIII., and Richelieu, his imperious minister, who exercised so 

 despotic a power over him, that it might be truly said he was moi'e a 

 king than the king himself, visited Rouen in 1634. M. de Harlay, the 

 archbishop of that diocese, who was desirous of rendering them all 

 possible honour, requested Corneille, as the most distinguished poet of 

 the province, to celebrate their arrival. Upon this occasion he composed 

 some Latin verses, bad enough in themselves, but good enough for the 

 purpose, in which, affecting to shrink from so great a task, he contrived 

 to load the king, the cardinal, the archbishop, the court poets, and even 

 himself, with the most exaggerated praises. That which his successful 

 comedies would never have obtained for him, he gained by this gross 

 flattery. Richelieu, who was weak enough to think he could write 

 verse, and who patronised some of the worst poets — even of his day, 

 when there were few good ones — immediately extended his favour to 

 Corneille. The cardinal had at this time four Uttcrateurs, whose duty 

 it was, in return for his protection, to make comedies and tragedies, the 

 subjects of wliich his eminence furnished them ; who received his salary ; 

 and who did not feel themselves disgraced by calling him their master. 

 They were the Abbe de Bois Robert, a witty profligate, whose vices 

 disgraced his character not only as a churchman, but as a man ; Colletet, 

 w]io not content with writing bad verses in his own name, made his 

 third wife (they had all been his servants) give out, as her own compo- 

 sitions, some of the trash he had tlie vanity to make for her ; De I'Estoile, 

 the author of some wretched plays, and of whom nothing is recollected, 

 but that, like INIoliereand IMalherbe, he used to read them to his servant; 

 and Rotrou, by far the best author, and beyond all comparison the best 

 man, of all the cardinal's retainers. To these Corneille was added ; 

 became one of les cinq auteurs ; like the others called the cardinal his 

 master ; and contributed his one-fifth of the poetical inspiration which 

 was necessary to fashion the raw material of Richelieu's invention into 

 dramas. Although however he was not so free from the tainted and 

 impure spirit which marked this period as to scorn the favours of the 

 cardinal, he had too much honour and independence to pay the price by 

 which alone they could be retained. " His master" had proposed Les 

 Thuileries as the subject of a comedy, of which the third act was 

 enti-usted to Corneille. The poet found it expedient to depart from the 

 plan of the inventor, and as he was not disposed to relinquish his OAvn 



caracteres de vieiUes et de ridicules. Cet usage de faire paraitre des hommes sous des 

 habits de feimnes s'est conserve du reste long-temps encore. Hubert, qui avait jou^ 

 d'original La Comtesse d' Escarbagnas et d'autres roles de femme des pieces de Moliere, 

 rcmplit avec un succes fou celui de La Devineresse de Thomas Corneille et de A'ise, in 

 16/9. Ce ne fut qu'apres sa retraite arrivee en Avril 1685, que ces mascarades cessercnt 

 £»tiercnient," — His. de Corneille,jp. 37. 



