NICOMÈDE

Qui partage vos biens aspire à votre mort ; Et de pareils amis, en bonne politique . . .

l'Rl'SIAS.

Ah ! ne me brouillez point avec la Répub!i(}iie, Portez plus de respect il de tels alliés.

The Republic is of course that of Roine, bv which Prusias

was protected.

Page 70. 1.2. Z.o/)<f ^/f /^^^ ([562-1635), the celebrated Spanish dramatist and poct. He wrotc a great numbcr oi" plays, which fall into thrce classes, first : Coviedias île Cupa y Espadoy or drainas with the cioak and sword, of which the principal characters were Spanish gentlemen who wore the picturesque national dress of cloak and sword. The second class consisted of Coviedias Heroicos or Hijtoruiles, and the third of dramas founded on domestic life. He also wrote epics {Ln Jérusalem cotiquhtada), romances, lyrics, pastorals, prose novels, &c.

1. 4. Vahh'e d'Auh'ignac (1604-76), played an important part in the literary quarrels of the times. In his treatise De la Pratique du Théâtre (1669), he endeavoured to lay down the laws of dramatic art, which had been adopted by the French Academy, and according to which the Sophonisbe of Mairet had been applauded, and the Cid of Corneille so violently criticized. His work is void of personal views, his only préoccupation being to ascertain whether such and such practices or licences havc been advocated or condemncd by Aristotle. He had written and produced an insipid tragedy, 'lénobïe (1647), after hearing which the prince of Condé said : ' Je sais bon gré à l'abbé d'Aubignac d'avoir si bien suivi les règles d'Aristote ; mais je ne puis pardonner à Aristote d'avoir fait faire une si mauvaise tragédie à l'abbé d'Aubignac'

1. 5. On Mairet, see note to p. 61, 1. 32. On Chapelain, see note to p. 79, 1. 32.

1. 25. On Cnlderon and the rank which Schlegel assigns to liim in the history of literature, see note to p. 30, 1. 35.

1. 30. Discours and Examens précède ail the tragédies of Corneille, explaining, discussing, and justifying them with regard to the observance of the theatrical laws above mentioned.

I. 36. Pauline and Sét'ère, two of the chief characters in Polyeucte (1640).

II. 38, 40. /"ow/x^f and 5fr/(/r/«j, two of the chief characters in Sertorius (1662).

Page 71. 11. 3 et seqq. On the pains which Corneille took to submit to the famous 'unities,' read the whole typical ' Examen ' which précèdes the Cid,

NOTES, PAGFS 69-72 I53

1. 14. // Je félicite presque comme un enfatit Je la complexité à' 'Héraclius.' The tragedy of Héraclius, Empereur d'Orient (1646-47), was justly described by Boileau as a kind of puzzle. The complexity and intricacy of the situations are almost equal to those of the first comédies of Corneille. The position of the tyrant Phocas, who cannot distinguish his son from his rival, is suinmed up in the foUowing well-known line: 'Devine si tu peux, et choisis si tu l'oses.' (Act I\', Scène iv.)

1. 18. Otho)i (1664J, one of the last tragédies of Corneille, the subject of which was borrowed from Tacitus.

1. 38. Grimoald et Arsinoé. Arsinoé was the second wife of Prusias (in Nicomède), and step-mother of Nicomedes, whom she detests. At the end of the fifth Act, however, she is overconie by the latter's generous conduct and her hatred is changed into admiration,

Grimoald in Pertharite is a Lombard prince whom Pertharite, King of the Lombards, has dethroned.

Page 72, 1. 2, Auguste, the chief character in Cinna (16^0). Pompée, the chief character in Pompée (1643).

1. 3. Salamaiique (Salamanca), the capital of the province of the same name in Spain. Its University was famous in the sixteenth century, and it is to the University which it sheltercd within its walls that the town itself owes its wealth and réputation. Salamanca has retained some of its old features, but its famé has greatly suft'ered from the diminishing importance of the University, and its population has dropped from 50,000 (sixteenth century) to about 20,000.

1. 8, Chimène, the heroine in Le Cid, whom Rodrigue loves and would marry but for the murder of Chimène's father, for which Rodrigue is responsible, Chimène, who cannot help still loving her father's murderer, has, however, the ' virtuGus power ' of sacrificing her love to her duty.

Pauline, the heroine in Polyeucte, had been in love with Sévère, a Roman officer, before her marriage with Polyeucte, but when she has become the latter's wife she endeavours to forget her former love and dévotes herself to her husband.

1. II, Jttila (1667), Bérénice (1670), Pulchérie (1672), Suréna (1674), the last tragédies of Corneille, contemporary with Racine's early masterpieces Andromaque (1667), Les Plaideurs {1668), Britannicus {i66g), Bérénice {i6-jo), Bajazet [i6y2), Mitbridate (lÔTi), Iphigénie {i6-;^). The coïncidence of the first set of dates with the successes of Racine accounts for the endeavours of Corneille to make his plays more

Iv| TROU PORTRAITS I.TTTKRAIRFS

'doucereuses.' On the character of the plays of Racine see notes relating to the next portrait.

1. 13. Platon was the ' écrivain préféré ' of La Fontaine, and this préférence often appears in his fables, in the form of direct or indirect allusions to Plato's doctrines,

1. t^. Quiuaiilt (t635-88), author of thirty-two plays, the best of which is a coniedy called La Mère coquette (1665). He is chiefly remembered as the crcator of French opéra.

1. 15. en remontrer à, to show a trick or two, to be more than a match for. Proverb : Cejt Gros-Jean qui en remontre à ion curé, ' He is tcaching his grandmother to siick eggs.' German : Das Et ivi/l klUger sein ah die Henné.

1. 30. An idiom is a way of speaking pcculiar to one langiiage to the exclusion of others — very often peculiar in its grammatical form ; a solecism is an incorrect way of speaking, arising in most cases from the neglect of grammatical rules.

1, 33. On the Epttre à Ariste, see p. 65, 1. 27, and corre- '^ponding note.