,"
we may at least describe him, with Nisard, as a second Montaigne,
"mais plus doux, plus aimable, plus naif que le premier," and with
all the charm of verse superadded.

CHAPTER VI
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY--MOLIERE--RACINE

I

The history of comedy, from Larivey to Moliere, is one of arrested
development, followed by hasty and ill-regulated growth. During the
first twenty-five years of the seventeenth century, comedy can hardly
be said to have existed; whatever tended to beauty or elevation, took
the form of tragi-comedy or pastoral; what was rude and popular became
a farce. From the farce Moliere's early work takes its origin, but
of the repertory of his predecessors little survives. Much, indeed,
in these performances was left to the improvisation of the burlesque
actors. Gros-Guillaume, Gaultier-Garguille, Turlupin, Tabarin,
rejoiced the heart of the populace; but the _farces tabariniques_
can hardly be dignified with the name of literature.

In 1632 the comedy of intrigue was advanced by Mairet in his
_Galanteries du Duc d'Ossone_. The genius of Rotrou, follower though
he was of Plautus, tended towards the tragic; if he is really gay,
it is in _La Soeur_ (1645), a bright tangle of extravagant incidents.
For Rotrou the drama of Italy supplied material; the way to the Spanish
drama was opened by d'Ouville, the only writer of the time devoted
specially to comedy, in _L'Esprit Follet_ (1641); once opened, it
became a common highway. Scarron added to his Spanish originals in
_Jodelet_ and _Don Japhet d'Armenie_ his own burlesque humour. The
comedy of contemporary manners appears with grace and charm in
Corneille's early plays; the comedy of character, in his admirable
_Le Menteur_. Saint-Evremond satirised literary affectations in _La
Comedie des Academistes_; these and other follies of the time are
presented with spirit in Desmaret's remarkable comedy, _Les
Visionnaires_. If we add, for sake of its study of the peasant in
the character of Mathieu Gareau, the farcical _Pedant Joue_ of Cyrano,
we have named the most notable comedies of the years which preceded
_Les Precieuses Ridicules_.

Their general character is extravagance of resources in the plot,
extravagance of conception in the characters. Yet in both intrigue
and characters there is a certain monotony. The same incidents,
romantic and humorous, are variously mingled to produce the
imbroglio; the same typical characters--the braggart, the parasite,
t