H.F. XII K

I^O TROIS TORTRMT<; I.inf-RAIRES

Krcnch Acadeiiiy, wliosc influence on l'iench prose is somewliat like that of Malherbe on Krench poctry. A inost caretiil lettcr-writer, hc oftcn devoted a wlioic fortnight to the ccinipositioii of a single Ictter, Boiieau said of liiin, in his R/Jîtxiorii sur Lougin : ' ... 11 a cttcctivement des qualités merveilleuses. On peut dire que personne n'a jamais mieux su sa langue que lui, et n'a mieux entendu la propriété des mots et la juste mesure des périodes. . . . Mais bien que ses lettres soient toutes pleines d'esprit et de choses admirablement dites, on y remarque partout les deux vices les plus opposés au genre épistolaire, c'est à savoir l'aflcctation et l'enflure, et l'on ne peut plus lui pardonner ce soin vicieux qu'il a de dire toutes choses autrement que le reste des hommes. . . .'

II. 8, 9. Sosie, Cléanthis. Cléanthis is the waiting-maid of .Mrnène and the wife of Sosie in Molière's Amphitryon.

1. 13. Patelin. Maiitre Pathelin was one of the most famous farces of the Middie Ages, supposed to hâve been written in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It was adapted and republished in the eighteenth century by Brueys and Palaprat.

1. 17. Sorel (1597-1674), the author of some satiric and extravagant novels, the best known of which is La vraie histoire comique de Francion.

1. 30. Autour du * Tartufe' il se lii'ra des combats . . . See note to p. 8, 1. 35.

Page 27. 1. 12. Chambord, a castle situated not very far from the Loire, in the neighbourhood of Blois. Molière gave there représentations of several of his plays : Monsieur de Pourceauguac (October 6, 1669), Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (October 14, 1670), &c.

1. 20, Un brodequin, a sort of buskin or lace-boot worn by the players of ancient Greece when acting comedy. Consequently the phrase chausser le brodequin means compose or act a comedy. Boiieau says in his tenth Satire : ' Mais quoi ! je chausse ici le cothurne tragique ; reprenons au plus tôt le brodequin comique.'

1. 29. Mademoiselle, or La Grande Mademoiselle, is the name given to the Duchess of Orléans, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans, the brother of King Louis XIIL She played an active part in the struggles of the ' Fronde,' and when they were over devoted most of her time to writing. Her ' Memoirs ' are fuU of useful information on the history of the Fronde and of the Court of Louis XIV.

I. 34. Vannée du ^ Misant hrophe' i. e. 1666. The Misanthrope

was given on the 4th June, the Médecin malgré lui on the 6th August, and the Ballet des Muses, Mélicerte, and La Pastorale Comique in Deceniber,

1. 40. Saint-Germaifi, a castle in the west of Paris, where the whole Court sometimes resided, before Versailles was completed.

Page 28. 1. i. Benserade (1612-91), a courtier-poet who wrote a few bad plays, but excelled in the composition of 'ballets,' the most fashionable entertainnient of the ^ime. For more than twenty years he held the post of organizer of ail officiai ' ballets ' in which king, princes, and ladies acted as comedians.

1. 3. Mignard, and the Val-de-GrJce. See note to p. 16, 1. 29.

1. 35. Miéris (1635-81), a celebrated Dutch painter, noted for the minuteness and patience of exécution which his works reveal.

1, 36. La Bruyère. See note to p. 23, I. 22.

1. 38. Cizeron-Rii'al (1726-95) borrowed from Brossette the subject-matter of a few interesting works, and published in 1770 the Lettres familières de Boileau et de Brossette. On Brossette himself, see note to p. 21, 1. 34.

Page 29. 1. 20. Faui'enargues, qui est de l'avis de Fénelon sur la poésie de Molière . . . Compare with p. 21, 11. 18 f/ seqq. On Vauvenargues see note to p. 3, 1. 4. On Fénelon see note to p. 21, 1. 18.

1. 40. Le latin viacaronique consists of a mixture of genuine Latin words with words of a modem language with Latin endings {us, is, um, &c.). The expression is said to be derived from the Italian word macaroni, because of the différent ingrédients of which it is composed, ^Liny instances of this pseudo-Latin occur in the Médecin malgré lui and the Malade Imaginaire : —

Savantissimi Doctores, Medicinae Professores, Qui hic assemblati estis ; Et vos altri messiores, Sententiarum facultatis, &c.

Page 30. 1. 22. la lie un peu scarronesque . . . On Scarron see note to p. 19, 1. 15.

1. 34. August ÏVilhelni l'on Schlegel (1767-1845), the famous German critic and writer. His Vorlesungen iîber dramatische Kunst und Literatur (1809) contain a study of the French K 2

'ORI'RMT!;

Théâtre in wliich hc displays grcat severity of judgmenl ; liis injustice towards Molière lias bccomc proverbial.

1. 35. Caliieron ( 1600-85), the famous Spanish dramatist. Sclilcgel givcs hini a forcniost rank among the niasters of romantic poctry, and considers that the whole literary movement of modem Europe proceeds from him.

P.vGE 31. 1. 3. Caritidès. In Molière's play, Les Fâcheux, one of the pédants begs Éraste to deliver a pétition to the King, inviting the latter to create 'une charge de contrôleur, intendant, correcteur, reviseur, et restaurateur général des inscriptions de Paris.'

Page 32. 1. 12. la farce un peu enfarinée. Actors of farces were accustomed to cover their faces with flour. The word is hère applied to the farces themselves to distinguish thein from the higher comédies such as Tartufe.

I. 23. Tabarin, a celebrated farcical player. Nothing is known of his birth and his early years ; he came to settle in Paris in 1618; his théâtre was merely a platform around which the crowd gathered attracted, by his diverting jokes and gestures. He realized a big fortune, retircd from the stage in 1630, and died four years after.

Page33. 1.2. Trt/w« (1763-1826), afamoustragicactor,\vho obtained his first great success in 1789, in Charles IX, a tragedy of Marie-Joseph Chénier. He was personally protected by Napoléon, created several new characters, and revived many classical ones (Achille, in Iphitrlnie en Julide; Auguste, in Cinna ; Oreste, in Andromaque; Néron, in Britannicus ; Hamlet, in the adaptation of Ducis, &c. . . .). He was unquestionably the greatest French actor of the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Page 34. 1. 7. Sans sortir des œuvres de Molière . . . Notice how the study of the works leads Sainte-Beuve to that of the man, how the literary picture grows into a psychological portrait.