AU LECTEUR

yi IB^Lope de Véya : Carpia Félix Lope de, bom in

Madrid, 1562, d. 1635 ; took part in the expédition of the famous Armada ; af ter having been twlce widower, entered the orders.

He was of a prodigious f ecundity ; about 300 plays by him hâve been printed — Madrid, 1609-1647, 25 vols., 4to.

Ti 16— Le Cid et Fompie : " Le Cid." a tragedy by Cor-

n^le, imitated f rom the Spanish of Guilhem de Castro. '* The great deeds of the ' Cid,' his roiigli generoBity, his nnflinohing yaloor, hia

inoormptible loyal^, his enthosiastio faîth, ererj stroke of thia grand poeUo piotore was," aays M. Gtenuei, ** the anoient héritage of Spain. Gastîlian honoor oonld see itaelf refleotedineyerypage. . . . Ck>meille disengaged and broof^ht into prominenoe that verj idéal action whioh the Spanîsh poet had overlooked. The interest of his immortol tragedy liea in the moral combat between honoor and love in Rodrigue, and between Iotc and duty in Chimene. The *Gid * was the snbject in which Corneille diaooyered his own genios and that tragic prinoîple whioh f rom henoef orth made his power.**— '* Pompée," another of Comeille*8 tragédien, represented in 1601 ; the subject of which is the death of Pompée, assassinated by order of Ptolemy, Kinff of Egypt, after the battle of Pharsale. Thongh tiiere are many beautiful passages, this tragedy, says Voltaire, is not a masterpiece : ** G^est une tentative que Corneille fit de mettre sur la scène des morceaux qni ne formaient pas nn tout.*' However. Corneille said of this work, " Pour le style, il est pins élevé en ce i>oème qu'en aucun des miens, et ce sont, sans contredit, les vers les plus pompeux que j'aie faits." Page vi Iv.e 18^ Guiliem (^Guithem, or Gislen) cCb Castro, a Spanish

diamatist, contemporary of Lope de Vega, who praises him in his ''Apollo's Laurel." His most famous play was ^' Le Cid," which Corneille imitated (see preceding note). His dramas hâve been published at Valence, under the title of '' Las Comedias" (1621 and 1625). vi IS—'Lueain (^Mareus Annœus Zueaniui)^ the greatest

of Latin epic poets after Virg^l, bom at Corduba, 39 A.D , died 65 ; joined a conspiracy against Nero, after having been one of his adulators. He accused his mother in hope to save his life, but Nero only gave him the ohoice of the death. His principal motive in jolning the plot was very likely more a wounded literary vanity than a gennine patriotism or republican convictionB. His ** Pharsale," chiefly composed since his disffraoe, is fuU of beautiful passages, rather declamatory against tyrauny. M. Naudet

NOTES. Si

flaya of him, " Lacain présente un phénomène moral trôs-remarqnable ; il y avait en lui l'homme et le poète ; il avait le caractère pnsillanime et Timagrination yig^nrease.

Livré aux habitudes vulgaires de la société, c'était un jeune imprudent, avec les faiblesses des esprits légers. Mais lorsque Venthousiasme le transportait loin d'ioi-bas, dans le sanctuaire de la pensée poétique, alors l'homme disparaissait Un dieu remplissait son ftme exaltée, il sympathisait avec les Caton et les Brutus, et tout ce qu'il y a de plus pur, de plus énergique et de plus sublime dans leur dévouement patriotique, dans leur amour de la liberté, dans l'intrépidité de leur vertu, dans leur haine pour la tyrannie, se communiquait à lui. ... Il fut par son imagination ce que Tacite fut par son caractère." Corneille had a great admiration for Lucan's style, as may be txaced in xnany pasgages of his Roman plays.

Page vi Une 20— cT" 0t... dépaysé Ue sujets : I hâve changed the site

and country where the f acts happen. But in so doing Corneille mlght hâve altered also some détails which are quite right when the scène is supposed to be in Spain, but which are less vensimilar when plaoed in the heart of France. For instance, the nautical fête, scarcely possible in Spain, becomes the more încredibleand out of Bcason in the French city. The same might almost be said of the scène of the balcony, much more in the Spanish manner than in the Franch.

^i 21 — Pour les habiller à la française : To clothe them

after the French fashion. The fem. word mode is understood in those phrases.

ri 25 — Les guerres d* AUemaqne \ viz., the War of Thirty

Years, which can be divided into four periods : 1. Palatine Period (1618-1625) ; 2. Danish Period (1625-1629) ; 3. Swediah Period (1630- 1635) ; 4. French Period (1635-1648). When " Le Menteur " was composed (1642) Condé had not yet won his great ba'.tles, which prepared Paix de Westphalie.

fi 26~-2>on/ il fait le nouveau revenu : This phrase is not

satisfactory. We can say te nouveau venu but not U nouveau revenu», Still it is intelligible,

and Corneille likes to coin new words oocasionally.

Page vii Une 1— iTif ne trouve à mon grè rien qui lux ent comparable :

Corneille bas of ten snoh fita of pride. He was oonsoioas of hismerit and did not shrink f rom confessing it. Bat we mnst not forg^et that he had to défend himBelf ag^ainst a swarm of enyions poetasters who tried to rob him of lûa prlory even af ter the appearance of ^^ Le Cid.*' In his celebrated '* Epître à Aristée," Corneille hasezpressed in an immortal form thia legitimate self-esteem wbich comforted bim : —

Je sais ce que je vaux, et crois ce qu'on m'en dit. Pour me faire admirer, je ne fais point de ligue : J'ai peu de voix pour moi, mais je lésai sans brigue;, Et mon ambition pour faire plus de bruit.

Ne les va point quêter de réduit en réduit.

Mon travail sans appui monte sur le théâtre ; Chacun en liberté, 1 y blftme ou l'idol&tre.

• •,.•■■....••.• Et mes vers en tous lieux sont mes seuls partisans» Par leur seule beauté ma plume est estimée ; Je ne dois qu'à moi seul toute ma renommée.

Et pense toutefois n'avoir point de rival A qui je fasse tort en le traitant d*egal.

Hère is a sample of tbe style in wbioh Comeille's detractors insulted bim. In bis " Qaatrième Dissertation/' dedioated to Madame la Dacbesse de Betz, tbe Abbot d' Aubignao tbos addresses Corneille : '* Vous êtes poète et poète de tbéâtre ; tous êtes abandonné à une vile dépendance desbistrions^ votre commerce ordinaire n*est qn*avec leurs portiers ; vos amis ne sont que des libraires du Palais. Il faudrait avoir perdu le sens aussi bien que vous pour être en mauvaise humeur du gain que vous pouvez tirer de vos veilles et de vos empressements auprès des histrions et des libraires .... Défaites vous, monsieur de Corneille, de vos mauvaises façons de parler, qui sont encore plus mauvaises que vos vers. J'avais cru, comme plusieurs, que vous étiez le poète de la Critique de rJBeole des Femmes, et Q ue Licidas était un nom déguisé comme celui de M. de Corneille, car vous êtes sans doute le Marquis de Mascarillequi piaille toujours,qui ricane toujours, qui parle toujours et qui ne dit jamais rien qui vaille.'*

JPaçâYii Une h'—N^ approuver pas la conduite i Notice the place

of pas, The must usef ul construction is ne pas en approuver la conduite. Ne and^a« are placed together before an infinitive.

yii 14 — M, de Zuyliehem : Father of the celebrated

astronomer, Christian Hujghens de Z. See in the édition Régnier two letters of Corneille to M. de Zaylichem.

vil 1 5 — Monseigneur le Ftinoe rf' Orange : Henri Frédéric

de Nassau, prince d'Orange, succeeded hia brother, Maurice de Nassau, in 1625, as stadhouder of the fifteen western provinces of the Netherlands ; captain and gênerai of the Union ; took Maëstricht, 1632 ; and contributed to hasten the independence of Netherland. He died one year before this happy event, 1647.

m 15 — MM. Heinsius et Balzac : Heinsius (Daniel),

Dutch linguist, bom 1580, d. 1655, had for masters Scaliger and Douza ; he professed history at Leyde, and has published, with commentaries, the principal works of Aristotle, Hesiod, Horace, Livy, &a ; also a Latin poem in four bocks. His quarrels with Balzac, and especially Saumaize, hâve been very celebrated. The quarrel with Balzac had for subject the *< Herodes Infanticida," a tragedy of Heinsius. The discussion lasted several years, and is related in a séries of pamphlets.

Balzac^ Y. Louis Quez de (1^96—1655) :

One of the writen who contributed most to tihe formation of the French language. His principle words are : ** Letter to Courart Chapelain, &c.,'* ** Entretiens on dissertations littéraires," " Aristippe, ou la Cour, le Prince, le Socrate Chrétien ; ** also some French and lAtin verses. Voltaire and La Harpe reproached him for having taken more care of the words than of the ideas.

vii \Q—'Ont pris comme pour arbitre : Comme hère is ez-

pletive, t.0., net necessary to the sensé.

vil 19 — Deux épigrammes, Vun français^ Vautre latin :

Épigramme is now only used as a féminine noun. *' Ce mot,*' says Littré, *' a été longtemps d'un genre incertain." (Cf. Montaigne iii.,

104), '*I1 j a un épîgramme en Martial qu'est des bons.** Fkç$ tU linê 20— Z>» Ekiviera à Leydm : Elzerirs or Elzeviers, Lat.

£lseyerins,oe]ebrated family of Datoh printers and booksellers, whioh flonrished in the 16th and 17th oentnry ; the most known are— Bonaventore Elze^br, Leyden (1618— 165S), and Abraham, his brother and partner. Their éditions, almoet every one of small sîze, are masterpîeoes of typogiaphy. Mr. Bronet has given a good notice on their éditions.

{Manuel du Menteur \