H. F. XII M

l62 TROIS rORTRMlS 1,1 ITÉRAI RF.S

conditions that wcre oftered to hini, the hostility which existed betwccn Porus and Taxilcs, and at last ihc victory which Alexandcr won ovcr Porus, the noble answcr which that brave Indian madc to the Conqucror, who asked hou hc would likc to bc trcatcd, and the gcnerosity wiih which Alexander gave him back ail his estâtes, and added niany to them . . .'— RACIiNE, Préface d'Alexandre.

Honnête means hère— as it ahvays means in French authors of the seventeenth century— well-bred, polite, and refined in manners. Cf., in Les Femmes savantes, Chrysale :-

Il n'est pas bien honnête, et pour beaucoup de causes, Qu'une femme étudie et sache tant de choses.

The meaning of 'honnête' is well illustrated a few^ lincs furthcr in the description of Pyrrhus: — 'On l'aurait voulu plus poli, plus galant, plus achevé.'

1. 6. Andromaque appeared in 1667 and was produced by the actors of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in the Queen's apartments before the King and the whole Court. It is founded on the story of Andromache, the widow of Hector, and prisoner of Pyrrhus, related by Virgil, Aeneid,\\\, 11. 292-332.

1. 7. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles and king of Epirus (in Andromaque").

I. n. Compare the following Unes with the Préface to Phèdre: — 'Je ne suis pas étonné que ce caractère (Phèdre) ait eu un succès si heureux du temps d'Euripide, et qu'il ait encore si bien réussi dans notre siècle, puisqu'il a toutes les qualités qu'Aristote demande dans le héros de la tragédie, et qui sont propres à exciter la compassion et la terreur. En effet Phèdre n'est ni tout à fait coupable ni tout à fait innocente. Elle est engagée, par sa destinée et par la colère des dieux, dans une passion illégitime, dont elle a horreur toute la première : elle fait tous ses efforts pour la surmonter : elle aime mieux se laisser mourir que la déclarer à personne: et lorsqu'elle est forcée de la découvrir, elle en parle avec une confusion qui fait bien voir que son crime est plutôt une punition des dieux, qu'un mouvement de sa volonté.' — Racine,

I. 33. ces 'volte-faces, those sudden changes in behaviour, speaking and acting ('subites' is almost pleonastic), from the Old P'rench verb "volter, ' to turn,' from Latin -volvo, iwlutum, same meaning.

Page 84. 1. 2. The Duchess 0/ La Vallière (1644-17 10) became the mistfess of Louis XIV in 166 1, and remained so until the king began to neglect her and turn his eyes towards

JMadame tle Montespan. When shc found that the king's feelings towards her were growing cool, she withdrew from the Court for the first time in 1670, when she retired to the Bénédictine convent of St. Cloud ; for the second time in the following year, when she took refuge in the Convent of Sainte-INIarie de Chaillot ; and dcfiniteiy in 1674, when she entered the comniunity of the Carmélites in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Shc took her vows in 1675 and received the name of ' La Sœur de !a Miséricorde.'

Madame de Mointetion (16 35-1 7 19), formerly the wife of Scarron (on the latter, sec note to p. 19, 1. 15), succeeded Madame de Montespan as the king's mistress and, after the death of the queen (July 30, 1683), was secretly married to him. Of a very devout disposition, her influence in questions of State was in the last years of the rcign considérable, particularly in regard to Church matters (Persécution of Protestants and Jansenists).

One of her most interesting achievements was the foundalion of Saint-Cyr, a kind of collège for young ladies of noble but poor familles, who were loolced after by Madame de Maintenon with motherly care. It was for them that Racine wrote the two Biblical tragédies of Esther and Atholie, which obtained when acted by the 'demoiselles de Saint-Cyr' a very great success. In fact, the représentation of Esther was a triumph for Madame de Maintenon, who had devoted ail her énergies to the well-being of thèse young ladies. After the king's death (17 15), she spent her last four years at Saint-Cyr, suffering from the spectacle of the dissoluteness of the new reign.

1. II. Madame, duchesse d'Orléans, a very interesting figure in the literary and political world of the reign of Louis XIV. A daughter of Charles I and Henriette de France (daughter of Henri IV), she was born at Exeter on June 16, 1644, in the middle of the Civil War. Her mother fled to France, leaving her baby, seventeen days old, in the hands of Essex. It was not until two years later that the young princess was brought to the Louvre, where Charles' wife was residing. Her childhood was sad ; INIazarin did not always payregularly the pension promised to the royal exiles, and mother and daughter were almost in distress : in 1649, in the depth of winter, the child was once left in bed for want of wood to make a fire in her room, Both left the Louvre for the Convent of Sainte-Marie de Chaillot, where the young Henrietta was very strictly brought up.

When she appeared at Court for the first time (in 1660) every one was charnied with her gentleness. In 1661 she M 2

164 IROIS rORlRAITS Ll I TÉRAIRES

was married to the Duke ol" Orléans, thc king"s biothcr. Her hiisband ncvcr liked hcr, and violent quarrels often arosc bctwcen them. "^'oung, slcnder, dark-cyed, cxtremcly pretty, and fiill of wit and intelligence, she had a great niany admirers, iVom the king downwards.

She took a great dclight in ail ' divertissements de res])rit,' and is said to hâve suggested both to Corneille and Racine the subject of Brc'riicc She gathcred at tiic Palais- Royal and at Saint-Cloud an élite of inen of taste and talent. ' Elle apporta à la Cour les agréments d'une conversation douce et animée, soutenue bientôt par la lecture des bons ouvrages, et par un gofu sûr et délicat.' — Voltmkk, S/èf.'e de Louis XIF, She protected Molière, who dedicated V Ecole des Femmes (1662) to her, and gave him her fuU support in the quarrels which arosc in connexion with tlie performance of Tartufe. Some critics beiieve that the most charming features,of the characters of Henriette in V Ecole des Femmes and Éliante in Le Misanthrope found their original in the princess. Racine dedicated Andromaque to her, and acknowledgcd in his dedication the share she had taken in the composition of the play :— * On savait que votre Altesse Royale avait daigné prendre soin de la conduite de ma tragédie. On savait que vous m'aviez prêté quelques-unes de vos lumières pour y ajouter de nouveaux ornements. On savait enfin que vous l'aviez honorée de quelques larmes dès la première lecture que je vous en fis . . .'

' Madame ' played an important part in the negotiations that went on in 1670 between the P'rench and English Governments. She went to Dover to sign with her brother, Charles II, the secret treaty which at the price of subsidies to the English king gave Louis XIV the help of England against Holland, and the hope that, sooner or later, Charles would be converted to Catholicism. After this brilliant diplomatie success— she was only twenty-six years old — she returned triumphantly to Court on June 21, 1670, where she was more praised and fèted than ever. On the 29th, about 5 p.m., she felt unwell ; on the soth, at 2 p.m., she expired. The suddenness of her death has never been satisfactorily explained ; many believed at the time that she had been poisoned, but this hypothesis seems to be without foundation. Whatever the real cause may hâve been, such a drarnatic death moved ail hearts and ail imaginations ; and Bossuet expressed the feelings of ail those wliohad known Henrietta in his bcautiful Oraison Funèbre : ' Oh ! Nuit désastreuse ! Oh ! Nuit effroyable ! où retentit tout à coup comme un coup de tonnerre cette étonnante nouvelle : INIadame se meurt . . . Madame est morte ! . . .'

1. 22. pointes. ' Les pointes ne sont, à en bien parler, que de fausses lumières dont le brillant marque bien quelque vivacité d'esprit, mais sans aucune solidité de raisonnement.' — (Corneille, Examen to ' La Feuve.')

1. 30. on sait comment Racine les remplit. Racine produced in thèse ten years (1667-77) : —

Andromaquci 1667. Bajazet, 1672.

Les Plaideurs, 1668. Mithridate, 1673.

Brita/inicr/s, 1669. Iphigénie, 1674.

Bt'rénice, 1670. Phèdre, 1677.

— that is to say, the whole of bis great masterpieces with the exception oi Esther (1689) and Athalie (169!).

1. 34. // rompit directement avec Port-Rojal. On this rupture and on the letters exchanged betwecn Racine and some members of Port-Royal, see note to p. 45, 1. 19, on the lettre à hauteur des ' Imaginaires.'' The attack of Nicole was really directed agaiiist Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin ; but Racine thought that some phrases, such as this : ' Un faiseur de romans et un poète de théâtre est un empoisonneur public, non des corps, mais des âmes des fidèles, qui se doit regarder comme coupable d'une infinité d'homicides spirituels . . . ,' were indirectly meant for him as w ell. Hence the sarcastic answers, of which he was to repent later on.

I. 35. Nicole (Pierre) (1625-95), a social moralist and theologian. He was Professor of Belles - Lettres at Port- Royal and an indefatigable controversialist. He wrote many letters against the Jesuits, but had to leave France on account of the Jansenist persécution. His principal work is Essais de morale et instructions théologiques in twenty-five volumes, of which Madame de Sévijjné and Voltaire had a very high opinion.

1. 38. un bénéfice. The revenue derived from the holding of ccclesiastical preferments such as convents, priories, &c. The bénéfices were disposed of by the Crown, very often without regard to religions considérations. Racine held the 'prieuré de Sainte-Madeleine de l'Épinay ' in 1666, 1667, and 1668 ; he was also 'prieur de Saint-Jacques-de-la-Ferté' (1671, 1672, 1674), ^rid 'prieur de Saint-Nicolas-de-Chésy ' in 1675.

1. 39. Epinai, a village six miles from Paris on the right bank of the Seine.

Page 85. 1. 3. Les Plaideurs (1668), a free imitation of The Ifasps of Aristophanes, fuU of allusions to the ridiculous sides of the administration of justice in the time of Racine. The attack was almost too direct to be well received by the

l (•>(■> IROIS PORIRAIIS I.niFRAlRES

Court, and thc play had to bc withdrawn froni the stage aftcr the second représentation. But wlien Lej Plaideur j was acted at Versailles, ' le Roi,' says Louis Racine, ' ne crut pas déshonorer sa gravité ni son gofit par de grands éclats de rire.' After this royal expression ot approval tiie play was brouglit again to the Hôtel de Bourgogne, where it at last enjoyed considérable success. It is still at the présent day one of the gayest and 'most French' plays of the 'répertoire' of tlie Théâtre- Français.

1. 5. On Rabelais, see note to p. 2, I. 12. On Marot, see note to p. 5, 1. 22.

On Scarron, see note to p. 19, 1. 15. 1. 6. On Chapelle, see note to p. 1 1, 1. 39. I. 8. Racine was received as a member of the French Acadeniy on January 12, 1673, as the successor of La Mothc Le Vayer.

I. 15. Iphigénie, one of the purest and most idealistic conceptions of the French classical drama, which Voltaire called ' le chef-d'œuvre de la scène tragique,' was represented at Versailles on August 18, 1674, and later on at thc Hôtel de Bourgogne (January, 1675), It was more admired and more attacked than any of the previous productions of Racine. As soon as the play appcared, a poet of little talent, Leclerc (1622-91 — Member of ihe F'rench Acadcmy in 1662), in collaboration with Coras (1630-77— the author oi Jonas, a poem of which Boileau wrote : ' Le Jonas inconnu sèche dans la poussière '), composcd hastily another Jphigt'nie, mainly borrowed from a play of Rotrou. This countcrfeit of Racine's masterpiece was produced on the stage of the Hôtel Guénégaud, and did not in any way succeed in impairing the success of the pîay which it aimed at ruining. Racine revenged himself on his two poor competitors by addressing to them one of the most sarcastic epigrams he cver wrote : — Entre Le Clerc et son ami Coras, Deux grands auteurs rimant de compagnie, N'a pas longtemps s'ourdirent grands débats Sur le propos de leur Iphigénie.

Coras lui dit : ' La pièce est de mon cru.' Le Clerc répond : ' Elle est mienne, et non vôtre,' Mais aussitôt que l'ouvrage eut paru, Plus n'ont voulu l'avoir fait l'un ou l'autre.

Phèdre (see note to p. 82, 1. 25), represented on January i, 1677, m.et with fierce opposition on the part of the enemies of Racine. A cabal was organized, led by Madame des Houlières. the Duc de Nevers. and the Duchesse

(Je Bouillon (on thèse names see later notes), with the avowed object of ensuring the failure of Racine's new production, very much in the same way as Coras and Leclerc had opposed their Iphigénie to that of Racine. Pradon, one of the 'familiers' of the Hôtels de Nevers and de Bouillon, composed a tragedy, Phèdre et Hippolyte, which was represented in January, 1677, at the Hôtel Guénégaud while the play of Racine was being acted at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. The Duchesse de Bouillon bookcd ail the best seats for the first six performances in the two théâtres, an-l filled them with spectators of her choice with a tnot d'ordre to applaud or hiss systematically. The cabal attained its aim in this way. Racine was utterly disgusted by the unfair proceeding that had been resorted to against him, and gave up writing for the stage in the very niiddle of his triumphs, in spite of the approbation which the Grand Arnauld, one of the sternest Jansenists of Port-Royal, had given to Phèdre, declaring it ' innocente ' and ' parfaitement belle,' and in spite of the laudatory epistle which Boileau wrote on the unfortunate and undesen-ed failure of the pièce, alluding to : — la douleur vertueuse De Phèdre, malgré soi perfide, incestueuse. 1. 18. On \\\c précieuses, see note to p. 18, 1. 14.

Boyer (1618-98), elected a member of the French Academy in 1666, the author of several unsuccessful comédies and tragi-comédies, praised to the skies by Boursault and Chapelain, the latter calling him 'un poète de théâtre, ne cédant qu'au seul Corneille en cette profession,' and ridiculed without pity by Boileau, Racine, and Furetière. This is, if we are to believe Furetière, how the unfortunate play wright used to console himself for his constant failures : — Quand les pièces représentées De Boyer sont peu fréquentées.

Chagrin qu'il est d'y voir peu d'assistants, Voici comme il tourne la chose :

Vendredi, la pluie en est cause.

Et Dimanche, c'est le beau temps.

On Leclerc and Coras, see note to p. 85,1. 15. 1. ig.Perrin(i62o-i6Ts) produced bet'ore the king in 1659 a musical comedy {Pastorale) which may be regarded as the origin of French Opéra. He inaugurated with Pomone, a lyric tragedy (March 19, i67i),the 'Académie des Opéras en Musique,' the privilèges of which were transferred to Lulli in 1672.

On Pradon (1632-98), a tragic poet, see note on Phèdre. His first tragedy, Pyrame et Thisbé, was produced in

l68 IROIS rORTRAITS I.II léRAIRKS

1674 and was vcry succcssful. He wrotc clcvcn plays altogcthcr, nonc of which rose abovc mcdiocrity. On Fonte>ie//f, sec note to p. 58, I. 13. Barhier-d' Aucourt {i^i'-f-g^). Unsucccssful as an advocatc, he became the tutor of one of thc sons of Colbert, He is the author of a satire, Apollon l'etidcur de Miihridate, againiit Racine. In order to avenge his friend, Boileau, in the last lines of his famoiis poem Le Lutrin, described how piteous wcre the débuts of Barbier-d'Aucourt at the bar: — Le nouveau Ciccron, tremblant, décoloré, Cherche en vain son discours sur sa langue égaré, En vain pour gagner temps, dans ses transes affreuses, Traîne d'un dernier mot les syllabes honteuses; Il hésite, il bégaie; et le triste orateur Demeure enfin muet aux yeux du spectateur.

1. 20. The Duc de Nevers (1639-1707) was the nephew of Cardinal Mazarin and inherited the lattcr's immense fortune. Very fond of being looked upon as a ' bel esprit,' he was on intimate terms with many of the writers of the time, particuhirly with those who were to be met with in the salons of Madame des Houlières and the Duchesse de Bouillon. He played the most prominent part in the cabal directed against the Phèdre of Racine.

Madame Des Houlières (1637-94), a French poetess, began to publish her ' idylles, églogues, odes, épîtres, chansons, madrigaux, bouts-rimés,etc.' in the Mercure Galant {167 2). She is said to be the real author of the sonnet on Phèdre, published under the name of the Duc de Nevers, which embittered thc war between the partisans and the encmies of Racine, and may therefore be quoted in full : —

Dans un fauteuil doré, Phèdre, tremblante et blême. Dit des vers où d'abord personne n'entend rien. Sa nourrice lui fait un sermon fort chrétien Contre l'affreux dessein d'attenter sur soi-même.

Hippolyte la hait presque autant qu'elle l'aime; Rien ne change son cœur et son chaste maintien. Sa nourrice l'accuse, elle s'en punit bien. Thésée est pour son fils d'une rigueur extrême. Une grosse Aricie, au teint rouge, aux crins blonds. N'est là que pour montrer deux énormes tétons Q^ie, malgré sa froideur, Hippolyte idolâtre.

Il meurt enfin, traîné par ses coursiers ingrats. Et Phèdre, après avoir pris de la mort-aux-rats, Vient, en se confessant, mourir sur le théâtre.

It was to avenge Racine that Boileau drew the following portrait of Madame des Houlières (Amaryllis) in his Tenth Satire (1. 43S):—

C'est une précieuse, Reste de ces esprits, jadis si renommés. Que d'un coup de son art INIolière a diffamés. De tous leurs sentiments cette noble héritière Maintient encore ici leur secte façonnière, .

I. 21. l'Hôtel de Bouillon. The Duchess de Bouillon (1649-1 7 14) was a nièce of Cardinal Mazarin and sister of the Duc de Nevers. She married the Duc de Bouillon in 1662 and devoted a great part of her time to literature. She was the first patroness of La Fontaine.

I. 26. une magnifique épttre, i.e. Épitre VIT. Sainte- Beuve is alluding to the following Unes of this famous Épttre à Monsieur Racine : —

Imite mon exemple ; et lorsqu'une cabale,

Un flot de vains auteurs follement te ravale.

Profite de leur haine et de leur mauvais sens,

Ris du bruit passager de leur cris impuissans.

Que peut contre tes vers une ignorance vaine?

Le Parnasse français, ennobli par ta veine,

Contre tous ces complots saura te maintenir

Et soulever pour toi l'équitable avenir.

Et qui, voyant un jour la douleur vertueuse

De Phèdre malgré soi perfide, incestueuse,

D'un si noble travail justement étonné,

Ne l'envia d'abord le siècle fortuné

Qui, rendu plus fameux par tes illustres veilles.

Vit naître sous sa main ces pompeuses merveilles?

1. 39. Cette pensée secrète qui le travaillait perce déjà dans la préface de ' Phèdre.' The following are the last lines of this préface : —

Le théâtre (des premiers poètes tragiques) était une école oîi la vertu n'était pas moins bien enseignée que dans les écoles des philosophes. Aussi Aristote a bien voulu donner des règles du poème dramatique; et Socrate, le plus sage des philosophes, ne dédaignait pas de mettre la main aux tragédies d'Euripide. Il serait à souhaiter que nos ouvrages fussent aussi solides et aussi pleins d'utiles instructions que ceux de ces poètes: ce serait peut-être un moyen de reconcilier la tragédie avec quantité de personnes célèbres par leur piété et leur doctrine, qui l'ont condamnée dans ces derniers temps, et qui en jugeraient sans doute plus favorablement, si les

170 TROIS rORIRAlIS I.riTFRAIRIS

auteurs songeaient autant h instruire leurs spectateurs qu'à les divertir, et s'ils suivaient en cela la véritable intention de la tragédie.

Page 86. 1. n. If grand Jmauld ne put s'empêcher luimêmf de le reconnaître . . . Sce note to p. 85, 1. 15. Antoine Arnauld (1612-94), the great theologian and philosopher, was one of the leaders of the Jansenists in their struggles against the Jesuits. He publislicd nuincroiis works and pamphlets in defcncc of Port- Royal and the tcncts of its mcmbcrs, but his Logique and Grammaire raisonnée are his principal titles to famé in the eycs of posterity.

1. 19. On June i, 1677, Racine married Catherine de Ronianet, of whom he had five daughters and two sons, in whose éducation he took a great interest.

1. 21. le roi le nomma à cette époque historiographe ainsi que Boileau . . .' The king asked Racine to ' leavc everything ' in order to dévote himsclf entircly to writing the annals of the great reign. ' Mon père,' says Louis Racine, 'toujours attentif à son salut, regarda le choix de Sa Majesté comme une grâce de Dieu, qui lui procurait cette importante occupation pour le détacher entièrement de la poésie. . . .'

As 'historiographes,' he and Boileau followed the king in several of his campaigns, to the sièges of Ghent and Ypres (1678). to Alsace (1683), to Luxembnrg (1687), &c. Their history, half completed, was unfortunately destroyed in a fire in 1726.

1. 24. Lucien (Lucian) (second century a.d.), the famous Greek satirist. H01.V history must be zvritten (nâç 8ei iaropiav crvyypdtpdv} is the best of ail his critical works.

1. 25. M'tzerai or Mézeray (1610-83), a French historian, author of an '■Histoire de France depuis Faramond jusqu'à maintenant, œuvre enrichie de plusieurs belles et rares antiquités et d'un abrégé de la vie de chaque règne, dont il n'était presque point parlé ci-devant, avec les portraits au naturel des rois, régents et dauphins' (published from 1643 to 1651) — oneof the first serious and reiiable historiés of France that \ve possess. In the volumes dealing with the early periods (up to the thirteenth century) many errors are to be found : they could hardly be avoided, considering the difficulty of gctting trustworthy information on the Middle Ages; but as regards the reigns extending from that of Louis IX to that of Louis XIII his history is rernarkable for its accuracy and clearness of composition.

Vittorio Siri (1608-85), an Italian historian who becanie through the protection of Richelieu and Mazarin ' aumônier '

and ' historiographe' of Louis XIV. He has left some very curious Mémoires secrets (published 1676-79), from which were taken most of the Anecdotes du Ministère du Cardinal de Richelieu (1717).

Page 87. I. 15. Britannicus was produced in December, 1669. The main Unes of the action are borrowed from Tacitus {Atinals, XIII and XIV). Hère follows an accurate résumé by Sainte-Beuve of the facts such as they are f^iven in the accounts of Tacitus.

Page 88. 1.2. Burrhus, ' gtiuverneur de Néron.' 'J'ai choisi Burrhus,' says Racine in his Seconde Préface, ' pour opposer un honnête homme à cette peste de cour ; et je l'ai choisi plutôt que Sénèque, En voici la raison : ils étaient tous deux, gouverneurs de la jeunesse de Néron, l'un pour les armes, l'autre pour les lettres, et ils étaient fameux, Burrhus, pour son expérience dans les armes et la sévérité de ses mœurs : " militaribus curis et severitate moruni " ; Sénèque, pour son éloquence et le tour agréable de son esprit : " Seneca praeceptis eloquentiae et comitate honesta." Burrhus, après sa mort, fut extrêmement regretté à cause de sa vertu: " Civitate grande desiderium eius mansit per memoriam virtutis . . ." '

1.3. A'rtrmjf, 'gouverneur de Britannicus.' 'Je lui donne Narcisse pour confident,' says Racine in the same préface ; 'j'ai suivi en cela Tacite, qui dit que Néron porta impatiemment la mort de Narcisse, parce que cet affranchi avait une conformité merveilleuse avec les vices du prince encore cachés : ' cuius abditis adhuc vitiis mire congruebat.'

Othon et Sénécion. ' Infracta paulatim potentia matris, delapso Nerone in amoreni libertae, cui vocabulum Acte fuit, simul assumptis in conscientiam Othone et Claudio Senecione, adolescentulis decoris, quorum Otho familia consulari, Senecio liberto Caesaris pâtre genitus ' (Tacitus, Jnn. xiii. 12).

Otho, the husband of Poppaea, exiled by Nero to the government of Lusitania, was emperor after Galba. Corneille in 1664 had made Otho the hero of one of his latest tragédies (see his portrait in this play. Acte II, Scène iv).

The only mention of Otho and Senecio in Britannicus appears in Act IV, Scène ii, verses 1205-6 : —

Othon, Sénécion, jeunes voluptueux.

Et de tous vos plaisirs flatteurs respectueux . . .

1. 6. ' Qux, cunctis main- dominationis cupidinibus Jlagrans, habebat in partibus Pallantetn ' (Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 2), quoted by Racine in his Seconde Préface.

ÏJl I ROIS l'ORTRAITS LITIKRAIRES

l. 19. Junie, ' amante de Britannicus.' ' Junia Calvina, de la famille d'Auguste, sœur de Silanus il qui Claudius avait promis Octavie. Cette Junie était jeune, et belle comme dit Sénèque, "festivissima omnium pueilanun." Son Irèrectelle s'aimaient tendrement ; " et leurs ennemis, dit Tacite, les accusèrent tous deux d'inceste, quoiqu'ils ne fussent coupables que d'un peu d'indiscrétion." Elle vécut jusqu'au règne de Vespasien .' (Racine, Seconde Pnface.)

I. 22. Que dire du dénouement ? * Je la fais entrer dans les vestales quoique, selon Aulu-Gelle, on n'y reçût jamais personne au-dessous de six ans, ni au-dessus de dix. Mais le peuple prend ici Junie sous sa protection. Et j'ai cru qu'en considération de sa naissance, de sa vertu et de son malheur, il pouvait la dispenser de l'âge prescrit par les lois, comme il a dispensé de l'âge pour le consulat tant de grands hommes qui avaient mérité ce privilège.' (Racine, Seconde Préface.)

I. 24. Mais ce qu'on a droit surtout de reprocher à Racine, c'est d'avoir soustrait aux yeux la scène du festin. Hère again Sainte-Beuve betrays the Romantic. The lac k of ' couleur locale ' was one of the strongest criticisms addressed by the Romantics to the Classical School (see Victor Hugo, Préface de Cromr^-ell). As regards Britannicus, the same regret that the scène of the banquet should hâve been withdrawn from the stage has been cleverly expresscd by Paul de Saint- Victor (Les Deux Masques). Whether Racine was right or wrong in giving only an oral account of the famous scène is still an open question, The sccne was very dramatic in itself, and has often been brought upon the stage in modem romantic plays (in A^ero, for instance, played by Mr. Tree in 1906). Whether this addition would hâve added to the human interest of Racine's Britannicus is doubtful. ]Many critics of the présent day hâve defended Racine against the accusations of the Romantics. M, Lanson,for instance, déclares that ' Il a fait, quoi qu'on ait dit, de la couleur locale, au meilleur sens du terme. Il a réussi au delà de toute espérance : Tacite n'est ni plus coloré, ni plus expressif, et Racine a vraiment égalé celui qu'il appelait le plus grand peintre de l'antiquité. Ce qui est merveilleux, c'est la précision en même temps que l'éclat de ce tableau d'histoire. Il est d'une franche et solide couleur , , ,'

Page 89. 1. 6. Agrippitie, dans sa belle ini'ective contre Néron. Agrippine to Burrhus (Act III, Scène iii) : — On verra d'un côté le fils d'un Empereur Redemandant la foi jurée à sa famille, Et de Germanicus on entendra la fille ; De l'autre, l'on verra le fils d'Énobarbus,

Appuyé de Sénèque et du tribun Burrhus,

Qui tous deux de l'exil rappelés par moi-même

Partagent à mes yeux l'autorité suprême.

De nos crimes communs je veux qu'on soit instruit . . . 11. 12-14. Quotation from Tacitus {Ann. XIII. 14). 11. 22, et seqq. The subject of Phèdre is borrowed from Euripides {Hippolytui). In the tragedy of Euripides, Phaedra fosters a guilty love for her husband's son ; she kills herself before the return of Theseus, after writing do\v'n her accusations against Hippolytus. Theseus curses and arives away his son, who, when on the point of dying, is however justified by Diana and reconcikd with his father. This is, in its main lines, the subject treated by Racine in Phèdre, but in the lattcr play the interest centres round Phèdre herself, whereas in the Hippolytus of Euripides Hippolytus is the principal character.

Page 90. 1. 2. la triste Aricie. ' Cette Aricie n'est point un personnage de mon invention. Virgile dit qu'Hippolyte l'épousa, et en eut un fils, après qu'Esculape l'eut ressuscité : et j'ai lu encore dans quelques auteurs qu'Hippolyte avait épousé et emmené en Italie une jeune Athénienne de grande naissance qui s'appelait Aricie, et qui avait donné son nom à une petite ville d'Italie . . .' (Racink, Préface de 'Phèdre '.) les Pallaritides, the fifty sons ol Pallas who contended with Theseus for the thi one of Athens and were ail killed by him.