action to foreign taste. _Polyeucte_,
1640, the greatest of all Christian tragedies. _La Mort de Pompee_,
1641, full of stately verse, but heavy and somewhat grandiose. _Le
Menteur_, 1642, a charming comedy, followed by a _Suite du Menteur_,
1643, not inferior, though the fickleness of public taste disapproved
it. _Theodore_, 1645, a noble tragedy, which only failed because the
prudery of theatrical precisians found fault with its theme--the
subjection of a Christian virgin to the last and worst trial of her
honour and faith. _Rodogune_, 1646, the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the style,
displaying from beginning to end an astonishing power of moving
admiration and terror. This play marks the climax of Corneille's
faculty. In _Heraclius_, 1647, no real falling-off is visible; indeed,
the character of Phocas stands almost alone on the French stage as a
parallel in some sort to Iago. _Andromede_, 1650, introduced a
considerable amount of spectacle and decoration, not unhappily. _Don
Sanche d'Aragon_, 1651, _Nicomede_, 1652, and _Pertharite_, 1653 (each
of which may possibly be a year older than these respective dates), show
what political economists might call the stationary state of the poet's
genius. The first two plays produced after the interval, _Oedipe_,
1659, and _La Toison d'Or_, 1660, both show the benefit of the rest the
poet had had, together with certain signs of advancing years. _La Toison
d'Or_, like _Andromede_, includes a great deal of spectacle, and is
rather an elaborate masque interspersed with regular dramatic scenes
than a tragedy. It is one of the best specimens of the kind. In
_Sertorius_, 1662, there are occasional passages of much grandeur and
beauty, but _Sophonisbe_, 1663, is hardly a success, nor is _Othon_,
1664. _Agesilas_, 1666, and _Attila_, 1667, have been (the latter
unfairly) damned by a quatrain of Boileau's. But _Tite et Berenice_,
1670, must be acknowledged to be inferior to the play of Racine in
rivalry with which it was produced. _Pulcherie_, 1672, and _Surena_,
1674, are last-fruits off an old tree, which, especially the second, are
not unworthy of it. Nor was Corneille's contribution to the remarkable
opera of _Psyche_, 1671, inconsiderable. This completes his dramatic
work, which amounts to thirty pieces and part of another. It should be
added that, to all the plays up to _La Toison d'Or_, he subjoined in a
collected edition very remarkable criticisms of them, which he calls
_Examens_.

Th