1829.] Conieille ; his Life ami Writings. 617 



safe, the sentiment was unM'orthy of him ; if because he had lost his 

 pension, and had nothing more to hope. from his patron's generosity, it 

 was an unpardonable baseness. 



His tragedy* of Theodore, which is founded on the martyrdom of a 

 Christian maiden, appeared soon afterwards, and was not only coldly 

 received, but has since been mercilessly abused by Voltaire, who thinks 

 it so bad that, with most amusing impudence, he doubts whether Lope 

 de Vega, or even Shakspeare, are worse. 



On the 14th of October, in the same year, 1645, a letter was 

 addressed to Corneille by the young king, Louis XIV., requiring him 

 to write the poetical part of Les Trioinphes de Louis le Juste, Xllle 

 du nom ; a task which he performed more to the satisfaction of his royal 

 patron than to the increase of his own fame. He had been before this 

 proposed as one of the members of the Academy ; but his election had 

 been postponed under the pretext that his residence at Rouen made it 

 impossible to discharge efficiently the duties of that office. In January, 

 1647, on his having intimated that he had made such arrangements as 

 •would enable him to pass a part at least of every year in Paris, he 

 was elected. Soon afterwards, his Heraclius appeared, a subject on 

 which, as Calderon also wrote a tragedy, he is accused of having taken 

 from the Spanish dramatist. The question of priority has never been 

 satisfactorily settled ; although it appears there is some reason to believe 

 that the Spaniard was in Paris when Heraclius appeared, and did rot 

 write his own tragedy until two years afterwards. 



The machinery of the French theatres was miserable and clumsy to 

 the last degree, until it was improved at about this time, by an Italian 

 artist, whose name was Torrelli, and who had carried scenic deceptions 

 to so marvellous a pitch, that he was called Le Grand Sorcier. Corneille's 

 next effort was to compose a Iragedic a machine, with the assistance of 

 Tori'elli, M'hich became the delight of all Paris, less for its poetical merit 

 than for its magnificence of decoi-ation. This was followed by Dotn 

 Sanche d'Arragon, which he called an heroic comedy, and which, as it 

 was the first time that such a composition had been produced in France, 

 although it had been long common in England and in Spain, the author 

 thought fit to apologise for in his dedication to ]\I. de Zuylichem, by 

 saying, " Vous connaissez I'humeur de nos Francais ; ils aiment la 

 nouveaute, et je hasarde nan tarn meliora quam nova, sur I'esperance de 

 les mieux divertir." The attempt does not seem to have answered the 

 expectations of the author ; but Nicomede, a play in the same style, 

 made amends for the failure of the former ; and is said by Voltaire, 

 notwithstanding his horror at its want of regularity, to be one of the 

 strongest proofs that Corneille has given of true genius. Perfharite 

 followed, but failed entirely ; a circumstance which its author regretted 

 the more, because he could never be convinced that his play was justly 

 condemned. It was this event that confirmed him in a determination he 

 had long formed of withdrawing himself from his theatrical labours ; 

 and when the nature and extent of those labours are considered, it will 



* He had been engaged upon a tragedy which was afterwards played under the title of 

 Rodnffune, when he found a play of the same title advertised. Ongoing to the theatre, 

 he discovered that the situations and incidents of his own piece had been taken by the 

 author, Gilbert, to whom they had been communicated by a false friend. Corneille scorned 

 to complain, but hastened the representation of his own tragedy, the success of which con- 

 soled him for llic fraud tliat had been practised on him. 



M.M. iXcn- .Scries.— Vol. Vlll. No. 18. 4 K 



