is classical method; the mediaeval drama seemed
inartificial to him in the large concessions granted by the spectators
to the authors and actors; he would have what passes on the stage
approximate, at least, to reality; the unities were accepted not
merely on the supposed authority of Aristotle, but because they were
an aid in attaining verisimilitude.

The most eminent name in the history of French tragedy of the sixteenth
century is that of ROBERT GARNIER (1534-90). His discipleship to
Seneca was at first that of a pupil who reproduces with exaggeration
his master's errors. Sensible of the want of movement in his scenes,
he proceeded in later plays to accumulate action upon action without
reducing the action to unity. At length, in _Les Juives_ (1583), which
exhibits the revolt of the Jewish King and his punishment by
Nabuchodonosor, he attained something of true pity and terror, beauty
of characterisation, beauty of lyrical utterance in the plaintive
songs of the chorus. Garnier was assuredly a poet; but even in _Les
Juives_, the best tragedy of his century, he was not a master of
dramatic art. If anywhere he is in a true sense dramatic, it is in
his example of the new form of tragi-comedy. _Bradamante_, derived
from the _Orlando Furioso_ of Ariosto, shows not only poetic
imagination, but a certain feeling for the requirements of the
theatre.

Comedy in the sixteenth century, dating from Jodelle's _Eugene_, is
either a development of the mediaeval farce, indicated in point of
form by the retention of octosyllabic verse, or an importation from
the drama of Italy. Certain plays of Aristophanes, of Terence, of
Plautus were translated; but, in truth, classical models had little
influence. Grevin, while professing originality, really follows the
traditions of the farce. Jean de La Taille, in his prose comedy _Les
Corrivaux_, prepared the way for the easy and natural dialogue of
the comic stage. The most remarkable group of sixteenth-century
comedies are those translated in prose from the Italian, with such
obvious adaptations as might suit them to French readers, by PIERRE
DE LARIVEY (1540 to after 1611). Of the family of the Giunti, he had
gallicised his own name (_Giunti_, i.e. _Arrives_); and the
originality of his plays is of a like kind with that of his name;
they served at least to establish an Italian tradition for comedy,
which was not without an influence in the seventeenth century; they
served to advance the