not without its influence on the style of Corneille, that
a youthful labor of his in authorship was to translate, wholly or
partially, the "Pharsalia" of Lucan. Corneille always retained his
fondness for Lucan. This taste on his part, and the rhymed Alexandrines
in which he wrote tragedy, may together help account for the
hyper-heroic style which is Corneille's great fault. A lady criticised
his tragedy, "The Death of Pompey," by saying: "Very fine, but too many
heroes in it." Corneille's tragedies generally have, if not too many
heroes, at least too much hero, in them. Concerning the historian
Gibbon's habitual pomp of expression, it was once wittily said that
nobody could possibly tell the truth in such a style as that. It would
be equally near the mark if we should say of Corneille's chosen mould
of verse, that nobody could possibly be simple and natural in that.
Moliere's comedy, however, would almost confute us.

Pierre Corneille was born in Rouen. He studied law, and he was admitted
to practice as an advocate, like Moliere; but, like Moliere, he heard
and he heeded an inward voice summoning him away from the bar to the
stage. Corneille did not, however, like Moliere, tread the boards as an
actor. He had a lively sense of personal dignity. He was eminently the
"lofty, grave tragedian," in his own esteem. "But I am Pierre Corneille
notwithstanding," he self-respectingly said once, when friends were
regretting to him some deficiency of grace in his personal carriage. One
can imagine him taking off his hat to himself with unaffected deference.

But this serious genius began dramatic composition with writing comedy.
He made several experiments in this kind with no commanding success; but
at thirty he wrote the tragedy of "The Cid," and instantly became
famous. His subsequent plays were chiefly on classical subjects. The
subject of "The Cid" was drawn from Spanish literature. This was
emphatically what has been called an "epoch-making" production.
Richelieu's "Academy," at the instigation, indeed almost under the
dictation, of Richelieu, who was jealous of Corneille, tried to write it
down. They succeeded about as Balaam succeeded in prophesying against
Israel. "The Cid" triumphed over them, and over the great minister. It
established not only Corneille's fame, but his authority. The man of
genius taken alone, proved stronger than the men of taste taken
together.

For all this, however, our readers would hardly relis