f the many objections urged against the play, perhaps
the weightiest is that which condemns the frigid and superfluous part of
the Infanta. _Horace_, though more skilfully constructed, is perhaps
less satisfactory. There is a hardness about the younger Horace which
might have been, but is not made, imposing, and Sabine's effect on the
action is quite out of proportion to the space she occupies. The
splendid declamation of Camille, and the excellent part of the elder
Horace, do not altogether atone for these defects. _Cinna_ is perhaps
generally considered the poet's masterpiece, and it undoubtedly contains
the finest single scene in all French tragedy. The blot on it is
certainly the character of Emilie, who is spiteful and thankless, not
heroic. _Polyeucte_ has sometimes been elevated to the same position.
There is, however, a certain coolness about the hero's affection for his
wife which somewhat detracts from the merit of his sacrifice; while the
Christian part of the matter is scarcely so well treated as in the
_Saint Genest_ of Rotrou or the _Virgin Martyr_ of Massinger. On the
other hand, the entire parts of Pauline and Severe are beyond praise,
and the manner in which the former reconciles her duty as a wife with
her affection for her lover is an astonishing success. In _Pompee_ (for
_La Mort de Pompee_, though the more appropriate, was not the original
title) the splendid declamation of Cornelie is the chief thing to be
remarked. _Le Menteur_ fully deserves the honour which Moliere paid to
it. Its continuation, notwithstanding the judgment of some French
critics, we cannot think so happy. But _Theodore_ is perhaps the most
surprising of literary anomalies. The central situation, which so
greatly shocked Voltaire and indeed all French critics from the date of
the piece, does not seem to blame. A virgin martyr who is threatened
with loss of honour as a bitterer punishment than loss of life offers
points as powerful as they are perilous. But the treatment is thoroughly
bad. From the heroine who is, in a phrase of Dryden's, "one of the
coolest and most insignificant" heroines ever drawn, to the undignified
Valens, the termagant Marcelle, and the peevish Placide, there is hardly
a good character. Immediately upon this in most printed editions, though
older in representation, follows the play which (therein agreeing rather
with the author than with his critics) we should rank as his greatest
triumph, _Rodogune_. Here th