The French Dramatists: Corneille [pp. 763-766]

T/,e Fioelch Dramatists.
his country, when with all his strong intellectual the charms of sentiincnt to a people, whose cino capabilities, was blended an intense love for the tions are easily awakened, and whose sympathies
art, whose cause he strove to advancc. His heart in favor of the beautifil passion, are almost a por was with his labors, and its untiring zeal brought tion of their religion, and respond with earnest en snccess to his efforts. He worshipped the majes- thusiasin to the awakening touch of a master hand,
tie in all its forms his taste tended to whatever we acknowledge that lie had stndic(1 well the minds
was lofty in virtue, and glorious ii) history. his of the many around him, and his final recompense
heroes were the mighty ones of the earth, illus- showed how truly hc had learned to read the human
trious in themselves, and rendered yet more so, by heart, and to frame his appeals to its decisions.
the gorgeous drapery his genius spread around their This tone in his compositions may probably be asdeeds. eribed to the lasting influence of early impressions,
Perhaps no author ever wrought so complete and to the unconscious lingering of the one dream,
sodden a change in the literary state of his coon- which "dies never wholly." Corneille, in his
trymen, as that prod uced by the brilliancy, and the young years, had licen disappointed in an offeire
energetic mind of Corneille. Yet was his onward du cur, and though the first vividness of his repathway not unmolested; the pilgrim-staff he car- gret was soon subdued into calmness, we trace, in
ned, was often heavy, and hard to bear. He en- his after productions, the strength of his youtlifiil
countered difficulties and obstacles, to surmount convictions, and the remainin recollection of that
which might well have arrested a spirit less deter- earliest love which so long haunts the memory with
mined; he had to combat with firmly established visionary beauty, when the lovelier reality had
prejudices, with personal enemies, and with the passed away.
long train of enviers and detractors, which reform- Like most writers, and like all poets, Corucille
mg and arbitrary genius is ever destined to meet is unequal in his style, and several of his produe
greeted with the derisive mockery of inferior but
rival writers: he met the harsh disapproval of the
academy whose fiat had hitherto been unquestioned
literary law, and he also incurred the unsparing
criticism and censure of the Cardinal de Richelieu.
A feebler intellect, or a more irresolute will,
would have shrunk dismayed, or fallen powerless,
before impediments so manifold and startling; but
Corneille did neither. He felt his might, and he
proudly toiled and struggled and resisted, until
others felt it too, and acknowledged its strength.
lie reared an altar to higher divinities, than those
the crowd about him had long so blindly and igno rantly deified. He stood in the temple, the priest
of a new faith, the expounder of a better creed;
he called from their undisturbed slumbers of ages,
the classic influences of the olden time,-and he
guided, with the far-seeing wisdom of a prophet,
and the self-confidence of'one inspired,' the fal tering footsteps of returning beauty. He had his
reward. Gradually the scales of delusion fell from
the critics' eyes; those who had listened to cen sure, spoke to praise: and the enthusiastic voice
of a people hailed his triumph, and confessed his
victory.
It has been advanced as an objection to the writings of Corneille, that hlie introduces too constantly as the ruling and prominent characteristic
of his dramas, the passion of love, that hlie makes
every other emotion subservient to the spell of this,
and frequently injures the unity and plot of his
plays, by this prevailing trait. To consider his
works as mere specimens of art, this is undoubtedly
true, and must be deemed a defect; but when we
remember that he wrote for a nation prone to exafgoerated feeling, and particularly susceptible to
VOL. VI11-97
1 842.]
765
,,That gracei and ease,
Which mniirk security to please."
It has been said, that he could not, even in common conversation, speak his own language correctly; and he used to observe in reply to the accusation, " C'est vrai, mais je n'en suis pas inoins
pour cela, Pierre Corneille!"
It is difficult, when an author has composed so
much, and so successfully, to determine which of
his works stands the best representative of the
whole. Perhaps the most deserving of admiiration, among his dramas, is that of Le Cid, and
probably few productions of the kind have encountered and vanquished so much severe criticism and
active persecution. Even the companions and
personal friends of the writer, condemned the play
on its first,tppearaice; the Acadlemy pr-onoLneed