e 'ruling passion.' The highest dramatic
triumphs of single character in comedy, Falstaff, Rosalind, Beatrice,
become impossible. As it has been remarked, the very titles of these
plays, _Le Misanthrope_, _Le Joueur_, _Le Grondeur_, show their defects.
No man is a mere misanthrope, a mere gambler, a mere grumbler; and the
dramatist who approaches comedy from the side of Moliere is but too apt
to forget the fact in his anxiety to enforce his moral and deepen the
strokes of his general type.

FOOTNOTES:

[233] Ed. Stengel. 5 vols. Marburg, 1884. Cf. Rigal, _Alexandre Hardy_.
Paris, 1889.

[234] This singular work has been published in vol. 8 of the _Ancien
Theatre Francais_ in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne. It consists of two
parts (or, as the author calls them, days), and fills some two hundred
pages. The traditions of the classical drama are thrown to the winds in
it, and the liberty of action, the abundance of personages, the bustle
and liveliness of the presentation are almost equal to those of the
contemporary English theatre.

[235] Ed. Viollet-le-Duc. Also in a convenient selection of his best
plays, by L. de Ronchaud. Paris, 1882.

[236] It is pretty generally known that Richelieu himself (besides other
dramatic work) composed the whole, or nearly the whole, of a play
_Mirame_, which he had sumptuously performed, and which was fathered by
Desmarest. It possessed no merit.

[237] Ed. Marty-Laveaux. 12 vols. Paris, 1862-67.

[238] Ed. Mesnard. 8 vols. Paris, 1867.

[239] The work of (or attributed to) this singular and obscure person
has been edited by M. G. Aventin in 2 vols, of the Bibliotheque
Elzevirienne (Paris, 1858). The name was certainly assumed, and the date
and history of the bearer are quite uncertain. The third decade of the
seventeenth century seems to have been his most flourishing time. He was
the most remarkable of a class of charlatans, others of whom bore the
names of Gaultier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, etc., and the work which
goes under his name is typical of a large mass of _facetiae_. It
consists of dialogues between Tabarin and his master, of farcical
adventures in which figure Rodomont (the typical hero of romance) and
Isabelle (the typical heroine), etc., etc.

[240] These will be found in the dramatic collection of the Bibliotheque
Elzevirienne already cited, as well as other pieces, of which the most
remarkable is the _Corrivaux_ of Troterel (1612). Saint-Evremond among
his ea