VOLTAIRE. 25 



The verses on a military usurper have been already 

 cited. Lines such as the concluding couplet of the 

 second act are not rarely scattered through the piece, 

 and never fail to produce a great effect in the delivery. 

 They have, like the former, been not rarely applied to 

 Napoleon. 



" Quand on a tout perdu, quand on n'a plus d'espoir, 

 La vie est un opprobre, et la mort un devoir." 



These, the ' Zaire' and ' Merope,' seem, beyond all com- 

 parison, and without any doubt, to be the finest of 

 Voltaire's dramatic works. His own favourite, how- 

 ever, appears to have been the ' Catiline,' or ' Rome 

 Sauvee.' He dwells with great complacency on its 

 having been more applauded than * Zaire ' on its first 

 representation, and accounts for its not having, like 

 ' Zaire,' kept possession of the stage, by observing that 

 nobody now-a-days conspires, but every one has loved. 

 The superiority of this to its rival, the ' Catiline ' of 

 Crebillon, is also admitted ; nor can we deny it a con- 

 siderable degree of that which constituted Voltaire's 

 dramatic merit, his eloquence far more remarkable 

 than his poetry. It may also be admitted that if this 

 criticism can ever lose its force, it must be in a com- 

 position of which the hero is Cicero; nor, if the 

 eloquence were of a higher order, if it were fervid 

 and impassioned, if it were warm from the heart, 

 and addressed and moved the feelings, would the de- 

 cision of which the author appears to complain ever 

 have gone forth against it. But the tragedy has, be- 

 side many other faults, that of frigid declamation, in 

 pure diction, often happy, generally pointed, even to 

 epigram, but still cold and artificial. There is also to 



