CORNEILLE'S LANGUAGE, STYLE, AND VERSIFICATION

Corneille is the first of the great seventeenth-century writers, and his language is the jnost archaic. Many of his words hâve become obsolète ; many hâve become weaker ; many hâve become restricted to a single meaning ; many, finally, then used in the full force of the primitive meaning, are now used only figuratively or in a technical sensé. His vocabulary is much less restricted than that of R. Unlike most of his contemporaries, C. used many technical terms, — of theology, of war, of commerce, etc. The basis of C.'s language was the conversation of the "honnêtes gens." (See note on 182.) He strove to keep up with usage, as appears from the many changes introduced in successive éditions, especially that of 1660. In this he was greatly influenced by the grammarians, then very powerful, particularly Vaugelas, whose Remarques came out in 1647. C.'s syntax, while not radically différent from that of to-day, is much more elastic, the agreement frequently being according to sensé rather than construction.

C, unlike other dramatists of the time, was a literary artist ; his style is carefully elaborated and repolished. It of "course bëàrs marks of contëmpdrary influences, notably Pzhiosité. (See note on 87.) The stamp of C.'s own tempérament appears in the logical, oratorical, practical,

IIO NOTES

and sententious character of the style. It is not highly colored, and tends to the abstract. C. does not always seek the grandiose ; his style varies according to the characters, from the nobility of Polyeucte to the pettiness of Félix. In the lof ty passages, " it produces a deep impression of bare and austère grandeur." (Faguet, XVII^ Siècle : Études littéraires^^. 13.) In transition-scènes it is less successful. Its failings are mostly of the âge, its merits mostly due to C.'s genius. " In spite of its négligences," says Sainte-Beuve, *' Comeille's style seems to me one of the greatest manners of the century that possessed Molière and Bossuet." {Portraits littéraires, T. I, p. 48.)

C. is as careful an artisan in verse as in style. A disciple of Malherbe, his alexandrines show accurate rhyme, avoidance of hiatus, only rare overflow, fréquent inversions (cf. G., T. I, p. 393) ; the monotony of the usual cesura is broken by occasional shifting and ternary division. The couplets and even single verses tend to make complète sensé, — one of the reasons why C. is so quotable. C. sometimes used other forms of verse, as in A. IV, se. ii. C. was always a master of technique, even in his latest plays ; Faguet has said of him, " the finest verses that hâve corne from a French hand are his." (Op. cit., p. 11.) On C.'s language, consult the Bibliographical Note, p. xxv, and especially M.-L., Préface and Introduction grammaticale, and Lanson, Corneille, ch. viii.