649 



DRAMA; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



DRAMA; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



050 



the immediate and general success of the earliest French imitations of 

 the ancient theatre that were actually brought upon the stage. The 

 national taste the romantic tendencies of which had decidedly mani- 

 fested themselves was not suffered to develop itself freely. Thea- 

 trical enjoyment, since they first tasted it, has ever appeared a more 

 imperious want of the French, and of the Parisians in particular, than 

 of any other people, excepting perhaps the ancient Athenians ; and 

 when, at the period in question, their rulers had violently crushed 

 every other species of dramatic production, they eagerly welcomed 

 those only forms of it which those rulers would vouchsafe to let them 

 have. 



Some French translations from Sophocles and Euripides already 

 existed, but nobody had yet thought of adapting them to the stage ; 

 indeed they were little to the purpose either of the brethren of the 

 Passion or the performers of the Basoche. A young gentleman, 

 Etienne Jodelle, seigneur of Limodin, who had studied the ancient 

 dramatists both in their original works and hi the Italian imitations of 

 them, was the first to avail himself of the opportunity thus afforded, 

 by bringing forward his ' Cleopatra Captive," a tragedy in five acts, with 

 choruses after the manner of the Greeks. His friends got a stage 

 erected in the Hotel de Reims at Paris ; two poets of note in that day, 

 Uenii Belleau and Jean de la Pe'nise, undertook the principal male 

 parts ; and Jodelle himself, trusting to his youth, his personal beauty, 

 and histrionic talent, personated Cleopatra. This piece is remarkable 

 only as being the first of its class, and so commencing a new era of 

 French dramatic history. Jodelle was more successful in his comedy 

 entitled ' L'Abbe" Eugene,' in which there is much comic power and 

 sprisjhtliness. 



From Jodelle down to Corneille, French dramatic art made little 

 progress ; but dramatic productions, in the same line of classic imitation, 

 abounded, especially in tragedy, the heroes of which were constantly 

 taken from Greek or Roman history, or at most from that of the Turks, 

 who were first introduced upon the stage by Gabriel Bonnin. At this 

 early period, indeed, of the French theatre, that singular dramatic 

 prejudice seems to have firmly established itself, that the pomp of 

 tragic style could not be well supported on the stage, except both cos- 

 tume and character were either Greek, Roman, or Mussulman. The 

 Alexandrine verse, too, was almost invariably used ; though once, and 

 but once, was acted a prose tragedy of ' Sophonisba,' by St. Gelais. 

 The versified comedies of the same period have nothing remarkable ; 

 but in 1562 the two brothers De la Taille began to accustom the 

 French public to comedies in prose. Nicolas Filleul attempted imsuc- 

 ceaafully to naturalise pastoral poetry on the stage. All these writers 

 had still to contend against the privileged possessors of the stage. 

 There was not in all France a single company regularly trained for the 

 new class of performances. Under Henry IV., the brethren of the 

 Passion had obtained almost a revocation of the edict of 1548, which 

 prohibited them from enacting religious subjects ; but the public h;i<l 

 now little relish for these rude exhibitions, so that the fraternity found 

 themselves obliged to let their theatre to a more modern class of per- 

 formers. The other dramatic societies endeavoured to adapt their 

 antiquated pieces in some degree to the modern taste ; and thus out of 

 their old moralities they contrived to make pastoral pieces wherein the 

 Church was a bride, and Christ the bridegroom. Robert Gamier rose 

 in tragedy some little above his predecessors in elegance and dignity, 

 and was so much celebrated in his own day as to have the pre-eminenee 

 of his tragic powers commemorated in one of the best sonnets of 

 Ronsard. Though he usually drew abundantly from Sophocles, Euri- 

 pides, and Seneca, he showed in some of his pieces more 

 vigour, as, for instance, in ' Les Juives,' taken from Jewish history. 

 The prose comedy of intrigue (for the comedy of character had not yet 

 appeared) continued to be cultivated with vigour ;md success by Pierre 

 de 1'Arivey, contemporary with Gamier. The Jesuit father Fronton 

 attempted a tragedy on the grand national subject of ' Jeanne d'Arc,' 

 but without success. At length, in 1600, two permanent theatres were 

 erected at Paris, one of which was occupied by a company which took 

 the title of Troupe de la. Comedie Franfaise; the other company estab- 

 lished itself in the quarter of Paris called the Marais, with the consent 

 of the brethren of the Passion, and thus the old stage of the middle 

 ages was finally extinguished in the French metropolis. Still, however, 

 as before, the theatre took its tone from the exclusive taste of the 

 court; and from the commencement of the 16th century till the 

 appearance of Corneille, scarcely anything was brought forward but 

 cither tragedy or that very harmless description of farce which, it was 

 thought, might without much danger be conceded to the popular taste. 

 This is the grand era of the popularity of the well-known burlesque 

 personages tjro* Guittaume, Tabarin, and Turtiqrin, whose merry reign 

 was protracted even into the age of Louis XIV. 



Moot of the tragedies of this period flowed from the exhaustless pen 

 of Alexandra Hardy, a poet employed by the company which had suc- 

 ceeded to the privilege of the brethren of the Passion, and who wrote 

 more than eight hundred dramatic pieces, of which forty remain. 

 Possessed of very extensive reading, Hardy made some efforts to 

 derate from the beaten track of his predecessors : he ventured in 

 some instances to compose what he called tragi-comedies, one of which 

 nded on a tale of Cervantes ; but his genius was not equal to hie 

 boldness and facility. The dramatists who immediately preceded 

 Corneille and Moliere were Mairet and Tristan, the former of whom, 



like so many before and after him, tried and failed in the eternal sub- 

 ject of Sophonisba ; while the latter failed yet more signally in the 

 Jewish subject of Mariamne. 



\Ve now come to the age of Louis XIV., of which Cardinal Richelieu 

 was the real creator in literature, as well as in politics. This great arti- 

 ficer of despotism had the sagacity to perceive that, in order to consoli- 

 date his favourite political fabric the more, it was worth while to 

 permanently organise the literary talent of the country in the service of 

 the court. The court, it is true, did not directly dictate to the cardinal's 

 chosen forty in what quarters they should bestow their praise or 

 censure ; but things were so ordered that the men to whom the 

 protectorship of letters was officially entrusted should always share 

 more or less the tastes and opinions of the government : by the court 

 it was that they were paid ; under the eyes of the court they held 

 their sittings ; it was by court intrigue that a vacant chair was to be 

 obtained, and every writer was ambitious of that honour. 



Such was the predominant influence under which Corneille began 

 his dramatic career. To enter the academy, he must please the court ; 

 and to please the court, he must defer to the literary dictation of the 

 academy. Now, in dramatic composition, the academy not merely 

 recommended adherence to the so-called rules of Aristotle, but pre- 

 scribed their observance with the greatest rigidity. The tragedy of 

 France became conventional ; the structure of the verse, and the 

 opportunities it gave for a studied and correct declamation of passages 

 of poetical beauty and of lofty sentiments, gained the popular ear ; and 

 the subtle delineation of character, except in the marked features of 

 love, ambition, or revenge, were neglected, or only displayed in occa- 

 sional passages by the men of real geuius, who, reflecting the feelings 

 of their age, composed their dramas to suit the national taste. Some 

 little romance was introduced from the Spanish school, but curtailed 

 to tameuess to fit the Procrustean bed thsy had chosen. Their pro- 

 ductions have been treated of under the heads of COUNEILLE, RACINE, 

 VOLTAIRE, &c., in the Bioo. Div. 



The rise of the French comedy of character, of which Molifere is 

 the great representative, is yet more clearly connected with the 

 Spanish source than that of their classic tragedy. But Moliere was 

 born for the comic only, and could indulge his dramatic tastes and 

 propensities with comparatively little restraint. In his first pieces, 

 written for a strolling coinpauy, he imitated the lively trickery and 

 buffoonery of the Italian farces, a species of composition for which, 

 throughout his career, he showed a strong inclination. [MoLifcni:. in 

 BIOG. Div.] 



The restrictions which cramped the genius of Corneille comfortably 

 fitted that of Racine, and contributed to render him in every sense the 

 favourite tragic poet of the court of Louis XIV. He seemed born to 

 carry to the highest possible perfection what we must call, for want 

 of a neater term that should be equally appropriate, the Frenchification 

 of Greek tragedy. [RACINE, in Bioo. Div.] 



In the history of French tragedy, it is little gratifying to pass from 

 Racine to Richelieu's favourite, the Abbe" D'Aubiguac, who revenged 

 himself for the failure of his tragedy 'of ' Z(Snobie ' by censuring 

 bitterly the works of Corneille. Racine himself found a similar 

 adversary in Nicholas Pradon, who wrote a rival tragedy of ' Phedre,' 

 which Madame Deshoulieres was not ashamed to extol above Racine's, 

 and a ' Regulus,' which the praises of St. Evremond and Madame de 

 Sevignd have not saved from oblivion. Lafosse profited somewhat 

 better by Corneille's example in the dignity and intelligence which he 

 threw into his . otherwise feeble ' Maulius.' As for the tragedies of 

 Duche 1 , Campistron, the abblS Pellegriu, the abbd Longepierre, and 

 others, suffice it to say, that they brought little fame to their authors, 

 and no advancement to the art. Thomas Corueille ventured to write 

 tragedy after his brother, and wrote it very " correctly." CrtSbillon 

 was by far the most successful tragic writer that arose in the interval 

 between Racine and Voltaire ; but his reputation was rapidly acquired. 

 [COBNEILLE, THOS., in BIOG. Div.] 



This species of composition occupied no small proportion of the 

 wonderful versatility of Voltaire, who has earned, in universal estima- 

 tion, a place beside Corueille and Racine as a dramatic artist. [Vor.- 

 TAIIIE, in Bioo. Div.] 



La Harpe, whose critical labours had so extensively injurious an 

 influence throughout Europe in enforcing the classic system in all its 

 rigidity, contributed nothing to recommend it by his own tragic com- 

 jiositioiis, which, while they are among the most correct in style, are 

 among the most frigid hi sentiment and effect. On the other hand, 

 Marie Joseph Chenier, who, flourishing in the early days of the Revo- 

 lution, wrote, like th%tragic poets of Greece, in the midst of free men, 

 and with like ardour stimulated them to the love of liberty, made 

 nearer approaches than any of his predecessors to the tragic strength 

 and fervid diction of Voltaire. His ' Charles the Ninth, or the School 

 for Kings' (ficole des Rois), was that among his pieces which produced 

 the greatest excitement in the public mind. Ducis, possessing brilliant 

 powers of poetic execution, in his tragedy of ' Albufar ' pictured his 

 ideas of Arabian manners with great warmth of imagination and origi- 

 nality of style : but hi* highest claim to dramatic celebrity rests upon 

 the endeavour which he made to bring his countrymen acquainted 

 with the masterpieces of Shakespere. The name of M. Arnault appears 

 already in the dramatic annals of that period. His first tragedies, 

 'Marius a Minturnes,' ' Lucreee,' and ' Cincinnatus,' with their energetic 



