618 Corneille; his Life and Writings. [Dec 



be admitted that the whole history of literature scarcely presents a more 

 rapid and brilliant career than that which he had run. " In seventeen 

 years" (Ave quote M. Taschereau), " he had produced fourteen plays, 

 which are the admiration and the glory of our theatre. In the four 

 others there is, perhaps, more of fortunate boldness and of ingenious 

 attempt. La Suite du Menteur, which Voltaire, whose criticisms on 

 Corneille are never too favourable, thought full of interest ; Andromede, 

 that brilliant essay in a description of spectacle, the characteristic of 

 which is grandeur ; Theodore, the faults as well as the beauties of which, 

 in spite of all that has been said respecting it, give proof of no ordinary 

 talent, and from which many fine passages of Ines de Castro have been 

 borrowed ; and lastly Pertharite, from which, although it failed, Racine 

 has not scrupled to transpose the principal situations in his Iphigenie 

 and in his Andromaqiie." 



That portion of M. Taschereau's work which contains some parti- 

 culars of the private life of the great poet, is so interesting that every 

 reader will regret it does not occupy a greater space in his volume. 

 This deficiency is not to be attributed to the author, but to the quiet, 

 and, but for his w^orks, noteless life Avhich Corneille led. He sold his 

 public employment in 1050, and devoted himself wholly to his family 

 affairs and his studies. " His marriage," says M. Taschereau, " with 

 Mdlle. de Lamperiere, rendered his life extremely happj'^ : the union of 

 his brother Thomas Corneille (who had made his debvt as a dramatic 

 anthor with some success in 1(547) with his wife's sister, had strength- 

 ened the ties which connected the brothers, and in some degree iden- 

 tified their feelings. They dwelt in two adjoining houses on the same 

 spot in which they had first beheld the light, and where their parents 

 had died, which they had united by communications leading from la 

 petite maison, as Corneille's house was called, to la graiide maison, which 

 his brother occupied. Their pursuits, their fortune, all were so much 

 in common between them, that even at the time of the elder's death, 

 neither the one nor the other had ever thought of partitioning the 

 property they had inherited from their father. Simple and kind of 

 heart, as much united as their husbands were, the two sisters had no 

 other care than to promote their mutual happiness. A poet, who was 

 well able to appreciate such virtues (Ducis), has said, 



C'etaieiit cle bonnes meres. 



Des fenimes a leurs maris cheres, 

 Qui les aimaient jusqu'au trepas; 

 Deux tendres sceurs qui, sans de'bats, 

 Veillaient au bonheur des deux freres, 

 Filant beaucoup, ii'ecrivant pas. 



" Les deux maisons n'en faisaient qu'une; 

 Les clefs, la bourse etait commune ; 

 Les femmes n'etaient jamais deux. 

 Tous les voeux etaient unanimes ; 

 Les enfans coufondaient leurs jeux, 

 Les peres se pretaient leurs rimes, 

 Le meme vin coulaint pour eux." 



" I do not know Rouen," says Ducis, in a letter to Le Mercier, " but 

 I will certainly visit it, to see the houses in which Pierre and Thomas 

 Corneille were born, and where they passed their illustrious but unos- 



