edy and comedy, are, upon the whole, more
perfect masters of their art than yours? If you deny it, I will appeal
to the Athenians, the only judges qualified to decide the dispute. I
will refer it to Euripides, Sophocles, and Menander.

_Pope_.--I am afraid of those judges, for I see them continually walking
hand-in-hand, and engaged in the most friendly conversation with
Corneille, Racine, and Moliere. Our dramatic writers seem, in general,
not so fond of their company; they sometimes shove rudely by them, and
give themselves airs of superiority. They slight their reprimands, and
laugh at their precepts--in short, they will be tried by their country
alone; and that judicature is partial.

_Boileau_.--I will press this question no further. But let me ask you to
which of our rival tragedians, Racine and Corneille, do you give the
preference?

_Pope_.--The sublimest plays of Corneille are, in my judgment, equalled
by the _Athalia_ of Racine, and the tender passions are certainly touched
by that elegant and most pathetic writer with a much finer hand. I need
not add that he is infinitely more correct than Corneille, and more
harmonious and noble in his versification. Corneille formed himself
entirely upon Lucan, but the master of Racine was Virgil. How much
better a taste had the former than the latter in choosing his model!

_Boileau_.--My friendship with Racine, and my partiality for his
writings, make me hear with great pleasure the preference given to him
above Corneille by so judicious a critic.

_Pope_.--That he excelled his competitor in the particulars I have
mentioned, can't, I think, be denied. But yet the spirit and the majesty
of ancient Rome were never so well expressed as by Corneille. Nor has
any other French dramatic writer, in the general character of his works,
shown such a masculine strength and greatness of thought. Racine is the
swan described by ancient poets, which rises to the clouds on downy wings
and sings a sweet but a gentle and plaintive note. Corneille is the
eagle, which soars to the skies on bold and sounding pinions, and fears
not to perch on the sceptre of Jupiter, or to bear in his pounces the
lightning of the god.

_Boileau_.--I am glad to find, Mr. Pope, that in praising Corneille you
run into poetry, which is not the language of sober criticism, though
sometimes used by Longinus.

_Pope_.--I caught the fire from the idea of Corneille.

_Boileau_.--He has bright flas