him as his own master and the
foremost of dramatists. We have quoted the informal tribute of Racine;
but it should not be forgotten that Racine, in discharge of his duty as
respondent at the Academical reception of Thomas Corneille, pronounced
upon the memory of Pierre perhaps the noblest and most just tribute of
eulogy that ever issued from the lips of a rival. Boileau's testimony is
of a more chequered character; yet he seems never to have failed in
admiring Corneille whenever his principles would allow him to do so.
Questioned as to the great men of Louis XIV.'s reign, he is said to have
replied: "I only know three,--Corneille, Moliere and myself." "And how
about Racine?" his auditor ventured to remark. "He was an extremely
clever fellow to whom I taught the art of elaborate rhyming" (_rimer
difficilement_). It was reserved for the 18th century to exalt Racine
above Corneille. Voltaire, who was prompted by his natural benevolence
to comment on the latter (the profits went to a relation of the poet),
was not altogether fitted by nature to appreciate Corneille, and
moreover, as has been ingeniously pointed out, was not a little wearied
by the length of his task. His partially unfavourable verdict was
endorsed earlier by Vauvenargues, who knew little of poetry, and later
by La Harpe, whose critical standpoint has now been universally
abandoned. Napoleon I. was a great admirer of Corneille ("s'il vivait,
je le ferais prince," he said), and under the Empire and the Restoration
an approach to a sounder appreciation was made. But it was the glory of
the romantic school, or rather of the more catholic study of letters
which that school brought about, to restore Corneille to his true rank.
So long, indeed, as a certain kind of criticism was pursued, due
appreciation was impossible. When it was thought sufficient to say with
Boileau that Corneille excited, not pity or terror, but admiration which
was not a tragic passion; or that

"D'un seul nom quelquefois le son dur ou bizarre
Rend un poeme entier ou burlesque ou barbare;"

when Voltaire could think it crushing to add to his exposure of the
"infamies" of _Theodore_--"apres cela comment osons-nous condamner les
pieces de Lope de Vega et de Shakespeare?"--it is obvious that the _Cid_
and _Polyeucte_, much more _Don Sanche d'Aragon_ and _Rodogune_, were
sealed books to the critic.

Almost the first thing which strikes a reader is the singular inequality
of this poet, a