PRANCE. (LITERATURE;. 



France with clowns, whom lie brought from Venice. 

 They called themselves t gelosi (people who endea- 

 voureil to please). When they began to play in the 

 hotel de Bourgogne, great crowds of people went to 

 see them. Farces ot all kinds became popular ; 

 even Richelieu did not disdain the jokes of the Groa 

 fjuillnume, the clown of the Parisians. The Italian 

 ariecchtno was supplanted in the French farce by the 

 Tabarin and Turlupin, who played comic parts of 

 servants, and were extremely popular in the time of 

 Louis XIV. Corneille first felt the want of a true 

 character-piece ; he was much less restrained by pre- 

 judices in the comedy than in the tragedy. His 

 youthful trials in comedy are finer, more correct, and 

 decent than anything which had been known before 

 in France, in the comic drama. He had but just 

 finished his eighteenth year, when he wrote his 

 comedy Melite. His later work, the Liar, is the first 

 French comic character-piece of classical value. 

 As a writer of operas, he distinguished himself by 

 his Andromeda. The comedy of Racine, Les Plai- 

 deursf is full of comic power. But Jean Baptiste 

 Pocquelin, called Moliere, born in 1620, is at 

 the head of French writers of comedy. L'E- 

 tourdi was the first piece by which he became 

 known. His theatre soon became the most fre- 

 quented in Paris. His company received the 

 honorary title comediens ordinaires du rot. We have 

 thirty-five comedies of his. He played himself, and 

 always with applause, and communicated his own 

 spirit to his company. He united the study of nature 

 with a perfect knowledge of the dramatic art. His 

 chefs d'ceuvre,Tartuffe and the Misanthrope, became 

 models of the higher comedy. To the second class 

 of his comedies belong the character-pieces in prose, 

 of which UAvare, George Dandin, and Le Bour- 

 geois Gentilhomme, are the most celebrated. The 

 manner of these is more free, and the humour more 

 broad. He allowed the greatest freedom to his 

 humour in those pieces in which he often introduced 

 music and pantomime, such as Les Fourberies de 

 Scapin, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, and Le Malade 

 imaginaire. The comic was carried, in these pieces, 

 to a height which it had never reached since the ex- 

 tinction of the old Greek comedy. Molidre's pieces 

 on festival occasions merely prove the remarkable 

 versatility of his talent. The French comic writers 

 kept themselves free from the prejudices which 

 shackled the tragic authors. Plays of intrigue were 

 less popular than character-pieces. None of the 

 later poets came so near to Moliere, in delicacy and 

 comic power, as Regnard (q. v.), (1647 to 1709). 

 Dancourt was inexhaustible in the invention of comic 

 situations. Le Grand was more negligent in his 

 style, out full of comic merriment. His Amide tout 

 le Monde is still performed. Shows and ballets ren- 

 dered his comedies still more attractive. Baron, a 

 celebrated actor of his time, endeavoured to imitate 

 the more elevated character-pieces of Molidre. Du- 

 fresny wrote good conversation-pieces. Montfleury 

 was the first who wrote tragedies in the Spanish 

 manner, with comic interludes. Le Sage also imi- 

 tated the Spanish, though not in the same way. He 

 likewise wrote many popular comic operas for the 

 theatre de lafoire. Destouches was the first who, 

 by investigations into the objects of the drama, began 

 to misapprehend the true nature of comedy, and to 

 render the comic effect subordinate to the moral aim. 

 He excelled in touching scenes. No writer has pro- 

 duced finer delineations of characters than Destouches. 

 Bergerac, Boursault, Brueys, La Font, Palaprat, and 

 the younger Corneille, were some of the most popu- 

 lar composers of farces. Since Corneille's Andro- 

 meda, much had also been done for the opera. The 

 marquis de Sourdene founded, in 1699, the academic 



royale de musique. The rich imagination and melo- 

 dious poetry of Quinault fitted hini to be the first of 

 opera writers. He is the most musical poet of his 

 nation. Duche, Campistron, and Fontenelle imitated 

 him. The pastoral pieces of the latter could please 

 only in that affected age. Houdart de la Motte wrote 

 in all branches of the drama, but was not much dis- 

 tinguished. The comic opera originated from the 

 circumstance that, in 1707, the popular comedies of 

 the fairs had been prohibited. More connexion was 

 then given to the Vaudevilles, and the place of the 

 dialogue was supplied by pantomime. This change 

 was so successful, that the interdiction was soon re- 

 moved. Marivaux's plays are affected and pedantic 1 . 

 Boissy and St Foix enriched the French theatre with 

 some witty productions. Piron was famed for hi< 

 inexhaustible wit, but only one of his comedies, La 

 Metromanie, has maintained itself on the stage. He 

 died 1773. Cresset's Mechant is still esteemed. 

 Sedaine's comic operas and comedies were popular. 

 Beaumarchais, whose sentimental pieces had already 

 obtained applause, delighted the public by his Bar- 

 bier de Seville, and by its continuation, Le Mariage de 

 Figaro. The latter piece was represented seventy- 

 three times in succession, after its first appearance, 

 in 1784 a distinction which, no doubt, is rather to 

 be ascribed to its bold ridicule of the higher classes, 

 than to its intrinsic value. Colle, Fagan, Moissy, and 

 Fabre d'Eglantine, Cailhava, Laujon, Laya, Fran- 

 gois de Neuf'chateau, are some of the most popular 

 of recent writers. Collin d'Harleville's Vieux Celi- 

 bataire, L 1 Inconstant, L'Optimiste, and Les Chateaux 

 en Espagne are f\i\[ of truth and interest. Andrieux, 

 whose Les Etourdis and Le Souper d'Auteuil are in 

 great favour, writes with much taste. His comic 

 muse has been educated in the school of the graces. 

 Picard, who had written thirty-five comedies before 

 his fortieth year, knows how to combine gaiety with 

 morality. The tragic writer, Lemercier, has also 

 written two comedies, Pinto and Plaute, which pos- 

 sess a rare interest. Biboute pleased by his first 

 trial, UAssemblee de Famille. Among the modern 

 sentimental comedies are distinguished Mtlanie, by 

 Laharpe, L'Abbe de I'Epee, by Bouilly, and La Mori 

 de Socrate, by Bernardin de St Pierre. Jouy, the 

 author of the Vestale, Etienne, Esmenard, and Hoff- 

 mann, are the most celebrated among the living 

 authors in the serious opera ; Monvel, Marsollier, 

 Duval, Dieulafoi, Piis, Scribe and Barre in the 

 comic opera and the vaudeville. 



A glance at the history of the French drama will 

 convince us that Corneille, Racine, Moliere, and 

 Voltaire gave its present form to the French theatre ; 

 and time only can determine whether a new path 

 shall be opened in the direction to which the romantic 

 school, as it is called, has pointed, and a new crite- 

 rion of the art shall be fixed by some commanding 

 genius. Hitherto, the increased acquaintance with 

 Shakspeare, and the views of Diderot, Beaumarchais, 

 Mercier, and others, deviating more or less from the 

 old classical school, have not produced much effect. 

 If, however, we may venture a conjecture, it would 

 seem that France, so totally changed by the revolu- 

 tion, and in close literary intercourse with England 

 and Germany, cannot for ever adhere to the old 

 standard, though a long time may elapse before the 

 new principles are firmly established. In comedy, 

 a great change has already taken place since the 

 revolution; and numerous authors, as Andrieux, 

 Collin d'Harleville, Duval, Picard, &c., have success- 

 fully substituted the comedy of intrigue for the char- 

 acter-pieces of Moliere. But in tragedy, every de- 

 viation from the old standard is still considered an 

 offence against good taste. 



Modern French Literature. The French liter- 



