Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 4).

Date:: 1830-33

Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 4). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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$CREAM OF TARTAR—CREBILLON. varies according to the dose in which it is administered. In small doses, it is ab- sorl)ed, and acts as a tempcrant; and, in this quality, it is employed in jaundice, foulness of the stomach and intestines, &c. In larger doses, it principally spends its action on the mucous intestinal membrane, and induces alvine evacuations, especially when given in powder. Its taste being rather less unpleasant than that of some other neutral salts used in medicine, and its operation being of a very gentle nature, it is veiy frequently administered. In France, the soluble cream of taitar is gen- erally ])referred. Crkbillon, Prosper Jolyot de, the elder, a writer of ti-agedy, who is com- pared, by his countiymen, even to iEschy- lus, born at Dijon, Feb'. 15, 1G74, early manifested talent at the school of the Jesu- its in his native town, but, at the same time, a boisterous and heedless temper. Being designed for tlie profession of law, he was placed with an attorney named Prieur at Paris ; but they wei-e both lov- ers of the theatre, so that the youth made httle progress in his studies. The attor- ney perceived, too, that his pupil was dis- qualified for the profession by his passion- ate temperament, but showed penetration and judgment in his criticisms on dra- matic performances: he therefore advised him, though he had, as yet, wiitten noth- ing but some ti-ifling songs and scraps of verse, to apply himself to dramatic com- position. Crebillon did so ; but his first piece. La Mart ties Enfans de Brutus, was rejected by the playei-s. He burnt the manuscript, and resolved to have no more to do with the drama; but, subsequently, at the persuasion of Prieur, he wrote Idome- nk, which, in 1705, was brought upon the stage. The faults of the play were over- looked in consideration of the youth of the author, and the promising talent which it displayed; and the promptness with which the author in five days wrote anew the last act, which had displeased at the firet representation, drew the attention of the puljlic to the young poet, whose talents, after the appearance of his Atree, in 1707, were loudly applauded. Prieur, tliough sick, requested to be carried to the theatre, and said to the young tragedian, «' I die content; I have made you a poet, and leave in you a man who belongs to the nation. A strange taste for unnatural declamation had been excited by the Bha- dogune, and this manner was carried to excess by Ci-6billon, in the J^rk. In 1709 appeared his Eledre, which is as declam- atory and as intricate as his perlier plays i yet it suited the taste of the age. His chef d'auvre, at least accordmg to La Harpe, is his Khadamiste (1711). But Boi- leau, on his death-bed, hearing the firet scenes of this tragedy read to him by Le- verrier, could not help exclaiming to his fiiends, Heavens! do you wish to hasten my death ? Whj'^, the Boyers and Pradons wei-e suns to this author! I shall be more willing to leave the world, since our age is becoming inundated witli silly trash. Most pei-sons of the present day would probably agree with Boileau. In eight days, the Rhadamiste passed through two editions, and Paris and Versailles vied with each other in admiring it. Crebillon had been told that his talent lay in the terrible, and thought, therefore, that he could not exert himself too much in scenes of hoiTor, and hence was called the terri- ble. Xerxes (1714) exceeded, in this re- spect, all that he had before written, but soon disappeared from the stage. Scmir- amis (1717), the mother enamoured of her son, and not cured of her passion by the discoveiy of his relationship, was severely censured. It was not till nine years aflcr this that his Pyrrhus a])peared (1726), and met with a good reception, contraiy to the expectation of the author, who, in this work, had abstained from the frightful and shocking. Domestic distress and poverty seem, from this time, to have crippled the powers of his genius. His small patrimony was absorbed by debts and law expenses. A father and a beloved wife were taken fiom him within a short time. Amidst the embarrassments in which he was involved, he refused, with characteristic inflexibility, all the offers of assistance which were made him. When madame de Pompadour wished to humble Voltaire, Crebillon was thought of as a fit instrument for her purpose. The king gave liim the office of censor of the police, a yearly pension of 1000 fiancs, and an appointment in the library. Thus freed from anxiety, he finished his Catiline, which was represented, at the king's exr pense, in 1749, with all the pomp that the court theati'e could display. This piece, overrated by the party opposed to Vol- taire, is imder\'^alued by La Harpe. To make some atonement to the character of Cicero, which was thought to have been wronged in his Catiline, he wrote, at 76, the Triumvirate, or the Death of Cicero, which was brought upon the stage in his 81st year. The defects of the piece were overlooked, from respect to the age of the author. Thus much for his dramatic coippositjonp, In general, Crfebillon shows$

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