ed 2000 livres. _Othon_ (1664),
_Agesilas_ (1666), _Attila_ (1667), and _Tite et Berenice_ (1670), were
generally considered as proofs of failing powers,--the cruel quatrain of
Boileau--

"Apres l'_Agesilas_
Helas!
Mais apres l'_Attila_
Hola!"

in the case of these two plays, and the unlucky comparison with Racine
in the _Berenice_, telling heavily against them. In 1665 and 1670 some
versifications of devotional works addressed to the Virgin had appeared.
The part which Corneille took in _Psyche_ (1671), Moliere and P.
Quinault being his coadjutors, showed signs of renewed vigour; but
_Pulcherie_ (1672) and _Surena_ (1674) were allowed even by his faithful
followers to be failures. He lived for ten years after the appearance of
_Surena_, but was almost silent save for the publication, in 1676, of
some beautiful verses thanking Louis XIV. for ordering the revival of
his plays. He died at his house in the rue d'Argenteuil on the 30th of
September 1684. For nine years (1674-1681), and again in 1683, his
pension had, for what reason is unknown, been suspended. It used to be
said that he was in great straits, and the story went (though, as far as
Boileau is concerned, it has been invalidated), that at last Boileau,
hearing of this, went to the king and offered to resign his own pension
if there were not money enough for Corneille, and that Louis sent the
aged poet two hundred pistoles. He might, had it actually been so, have
said, with a great English poet in like case, "I have no time to spend
them." Two days afterwards he was dead.

Corneille was buried in the church of St Roch, where no monument marked
his grave until 1821. He had six children, of whom four survived him.
Pierre, the eldest son, a cavalry officer who died before his father,
left posterity in whom the name has continued; Marie, the eldest
daughter, was twice married, and by her second husband, M. de Farcy,
became the ancestress of Charlotte Corday. Repeated efforts have been
made for the benefit of the poet's descendants, Voltaire, Charles X. and
the _Comedie francaise_ having all borne part therein.

The portraits of Corneille (the best and most trustworthy of which is
from the burin of M. Lasne, an engraver of Caen), represent him as a man
of serious, almost of stern countenance, and this agrees well enough
with such descriptions as we have of his appearance, and with the idea
of him which we should form from his writings and conduct.