1829.J Corneille ; his Life and JVritiiigs. 619 



tentatious lives, with theii' wives, the two sisters. I love them so much 

 that I can fancy myself one of their family. Delighted with the success 

 of the other, they each pursued the same career, and seemed to have 

 resolved to share even their reputation jointly. They assisted each other 

 in their labours, and, if a well-established tradition is to be credited, 

 when the author of Cinna, who versified less easily than his brother, 

 found any difficulty in finishing a verse, he would lift up a trap-door 

 which communicated with fa graiuie maison, and call to Thomas, " Sans- 

 souci, lend me a rhyme." 



There it was that Corneille completed his " Paraphrase of the Imita- 

 tion of Jesus Christ, by Thomas a Kempis," of which he had published 

 the commencement in 10.51, not as has been unjustly asserted by La 

 Monnoye and Carpentier, as a penance for a licentious poem (an offence 

 of which he was wholly incapable), but as a work of piety. The poetry 

 is, however, as poor as the subject was ill-chosen ; but its sale was 

 immense, occasioned, as Voltaire asserts, by the influence of the Jesuits, 

 who exerted every means, in their pulpits and elsewhere, to extend its 

 circulation. 



Fouquet, who had now come into power, induced Corneille to resume 

 his theatrical pursuits ; and in obedience to the minister's suggestion, he 

 wrote his tragedy of (Edipe, and gained by it applauses quite as general, 

 though not so well deserved, as those which had crowned his former 

 works. Another fragedie a viaclnnes, called La Toison d'Or, was written 

 by him to celebrate the marriage of Louis XIV. with Maria Theresa, the 

 eldest daughter of Philip IV., and was acted with all the eclat that 

 belonged to the circumstances under which it was produced. Sertorius, 

 Sophonisba, and Othon followed, with the interval of about half a year 

 between each, and were all successful. Agesilas was coldly received, 

 and Atlila but little better, and both enjoy an vmenviable immortality in 

 Boileau's bitter and laconic epigrams. The ill-starred Henrietta JMaria 

 of England, who thought that in the fate of Titus and Berenice, she saw 

 the history of her own early passion for Louis XIV. which prudence 

 had suppressed, but which neither time, nor sorrow, nor all the vicissi- 

 tudes of fortune she had undergone, had been able to extinguish, sug- 

 gested it as a subject for a tragedy to Corneille. At the same time, and 

 without the knowledge of the veteran, she made a similar intimation to 

 Racine, who had just established his reputation as a tragic poet, notwith- 

 standing the ill-treatment his Britanniciis had received. The two authors 

 did not know they were engaged on the same subject, until they had 

 finished their labours. The result was very unfortunate for Corneille ; 

 his play failed, while his rival's was acted thirty times. His next work 

 was a grand spectacle on the fable of Psyche, which Moliere had begun, 

 and the completion of which he entrusted to Corneille and Quinault. 

 After this he produced Pulchcrie, and next Snrcnu, the ill success of 

 which convinced him, that to maintain the reputation he had gained, he 

 ought to cease to write, and he at once renounced all future attempts at 

 the drama. 



His domestic affairs had been the source of more poignant affliction to 

 nim than his public disappointments. He had six children by his mar- 

 riage, of whom he lost his third son Charles, a promising youth, at the 

 age of fourteen ; another was killed at the siege of Graves. His youngest 

 son had entered into holy orders, for whom he obtained a small benefice 

 in 1080, and one of his daughters took the veil; the other married for 



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