DRAMA. 



101 



Drama, which he wrote, made him a formidable antagonist of 

 "^'Y"^*' the Gallicists ; nn:\ since that tim;-, the turn of public 

 opinion in Europe has been certainly rather against, 

 than in favour of the poetical system which he attack- 

 ed. It cannot be disguised, however, that Huerta, 

 who avowed himself the advocate of the ancient Spa- 

 nish poets, and who was so in his critical dissertations, 

 appears as if, in spite of himself, the imitator of the 

 French poets in his practice, and has even accommo- 

 dated the Zaire of Voltaire to the Spanish theatre. 

 :i( It is singular, that, as far back as during the reign 

 be French of the mysteries and moralities, the French language 

 ""^ should have to boast of more than one very good farce. 

 The Avocat Patelin, which has really a humorous and 

 well-conducted plot, is supposed by Fontenelle to be 

 as old as the time of Louis XII. Another, entitled, 

 " Let marts vivanls," which has also a great deal of 

 pleasantry, is as old as the Kith century. But the ge- 

 nuine French drama, after some regular, but feeble at- 

 tempts at tragedy, by Jodelle, Mairet, Hardi, Itotrac, 

 and a few others, can only be said to have commenced 

 . ... with Corneille. As a critique on this writer has been 

 already given in our work, we shall content ourselves 

 with referring to that article, and proceed to consider 

 the character of their successors, Racine, Voltaire, ami 

 C'rebillon, who have since carried the French tragic 

 drama to all the perfection of which it appears to be 

 susceptible, consistently with the narrow and limitary 

 Racine. principles by which it is guided. Racine, without the 

 pomp and .ambitious concept-ions of Corneille, is at the 

 >ame time free from his turgidity. None of his plots 

 have the bold and natural variety of action, which 

 charms us in the drama of Shakespeare ; but his art in 

 arranging, opening, and thickening a plot, is that of a 

 master. Such also is his skill in the management of 

 his scenes, in adding to the enibarrasinvnt and increa- 

 sing the interest of the piece ; and his felicity in never 

 leaving the stage empty, or occupied by characters 

 brought on for the sole purpose of filling it. In his 

 language, there is delicacy, purity, and harmony. A 

 simplicity noble, but not ostentatious. A style at once 

 judicious and beautiful, which, without appearing to 

 feel the fetters of rhyme, expresses at once the fiercest 

 declamatory passions, and the subtleties of moral rea- 

 soning. The perfection of his language is so great, 

 tliat half its excellence is lost in representation. His 

 pieces are highly finished, and exquisite pictures, which, 

 to discover their full excellence, must be inspected at 

 leisure, and with reflection. The shades of his be- 

 witching poetry, according to the critics of his own 

 country, (who, in point of style at least, are best en- 

 titled to judge of him,) are so delicate, that it is diffi- 

 cult to find actors capable of conceiving and expressing 

 them. The strongest things that can be said to the 

 detraction of Racine's merit, seem to apply rather to 

 the cast of his national drama, and to the language in 

 which he wrote, than to his own genius. The lan- 

 guage in which he wrote is unfit for blank verse, and, 

 by the bondage of rhyme, must of necessity give a 

 trimmed anil .straitened expression to the utterance of 

 passion. The severe dogmas of established criticism 

 chained him to the unities, as far as it was possible to 

 observe them. It may be fairly said, that, without al- 

 tering the genius of the French stage, if not of their 

 language, it is impossible to reach a finer or more af- 

 fecting and natural tone of poetry, than that which 

 breathes throughout his Pha'dra and Berenice. His 



graces are like those of a cultivated landscape ; while Drams, 

 those of Shakespeare are like the views of a vast wil- v """ "V^ 

 derness, interspersing horrors with exuberance of sweets. Racine 

 His own countrymen have objected monotony of cha- 

 racter and sentiment to Racine ; but this charge, at 

 least in comparison with Corneille, appears to be invi- 

 dious. It is really Corneille who may be accused of too 

 much uniformity. In Corneille's pieces, the names 

 alone are varied. The characters and passions are the 

 same. The sentiments are alike in all. Haughtiness, 

 pretended Roman magnanimity, sometimes swelled to 

 a gigantic size, are constantly the prevailing features ; 

 and desire of revenge frequently too atrocious for na- 

 ture. Of six or seven pieces of Corneille which are in 

 representation, this unnatural spirit of revenge is the 

 ground-work of four ; the Cid, Cinna, Rodogune, and 

 the death of Pompey. Chimene, Cornelia, and Emilia, 

 all demand the punishment of a father or a husband ; 

 and the abominable Cleopatra, in Rodogune, enume- 

 rates revenge, among her pretexts for the horrors which 

 she meditates. Racine would have probably diversified 

 his theatre much more, had he not renounced the ex- 

 ercise of his genius when it had attained its full vigour. 

 Britannicus, Iphigenia, Bajazet, Phaxlra, Athalie, have 

 no common similitude to each other. He has delinea- 

 ted but few passions, because he wrote but few pieces. 

 His disgust at the criticisms of a finical age, co-opera- 

 ting with some superstitious scruples about the moral ef- 

 fects of the stage, unhappily consigned him to inactivity. 



Voltaire aspired to an original manner in his native Voltaire, 

 drama, by giving a greater variety and multiplicity of 

 portraits to it, than are found in either Corneille or Ra- 

 cine. Far inferior to Racine in beauty of expression 

 and of style, and without those touches of sentiment 

 and tenderness, which win the heart in that author, he 

 has introduced a greater variety of human manners and 

 situations on the stage, than any of his native prede- 

 cessors. In Alzlra, the customs of America are oppo- 

 sed to those of Europe. In the Orphan of China, the 

 virtues of a civilized people are contrasted with the vio- 

 lence of barbarians. In Tancrcd, there is a display of 

 the pomp and circumstance of chivalry. The intrigues 

 and crimes of courts are unveiled in Semirami*. He 

 adds to this merit, that of a highly philanthropic and 

 philosophical strain of sentiment. In Voltaire's thea- 

 tre, there are no gratuitous horrors no straining at the 

 sublime by detestable accumulations of enormity.* In 

 this respect, both Voltaire and Racine stand respecta- 

 bly in comparison with Corneille, and with Crebillon, Crebillon. 

 who, appearing as a competitor with Voltaire, was for a 

 time upheld in the opinion of a giddy public, by some 

 horrible tragedies, now justly fallen into oblivion. 

 The secret of tragedy, Crebillon seems to have believed 

 to consist in inventing monsters of villany. In his 

 Atrce et Thyeste, he superadds to the guilt wlu'ch the 

 Greek fable ascribes to the sons of Tantalus, contrives s 

 a plot of a double parricide, and concludes the piece, 

 by making a villain declare that he now enjoys the fruit 

 of all his crimes. The French tragic drama is professedly 

 founded on the principles of the ancient Greek tragedy. 



Without detaining the reader with any dissertation 

 on the trite subject of the unities ; without staying to 

 inquire how far the French critics have over-rated their 

 importance, it may be generally conceded to the French, 

 that the structure of their plays preserves a compactness 

 and symmetry superior to that of any other stage, and 

 more entitled in that respect to the appellation of clas- - 



The horrid piece of CEdipus cannot be fairly pleaded against Voltaire in this respect, as it was written so early in his dramatic career. 



