Eminent literary and scientific men of France.

Date:
1838-1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eminent literary and scientific men of France. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    58/394 page 44
    We have few traces to denote that Corneille was a scho- lar. However, of course, he read Latin, and Seneca fur- nished him with the idea of a tragedy on the subject of Medea. The “ Sophonisba” of Mairet was the only re- gular tragedy that had appeared on the French stage. Corneille aspired to classic correctness in this new play ; 1635. but his piece met with little success. It was a cold imita- iEtat. tion of a bad original — the interest was null. Corneille 29. was afterwards aware of its defects, and speaks openly of them when he subsequently printed it. After f‘Medea” he wrote another comedy, in his old style, called “ The Illusion.” It is strange that a writer whose merit con- sists in energy and grandeur should have spent his youth in writing tame and mediocre comedies. At length Corneille broke through the sort of cloud which so long obscured his genius and his glory. And let not the French ever forget that he owed his initia- tion into true tragic interest to the Spanish drama. Difference of manners, religion, and language renders the heroic subjects, which are so sublime and vehement in their native Greek dress, in modern plays either tame expositions of book learning, or false pictures, in which Frenchmen take ancient names, but express modern sentiments. Spanish poets at once escaped from these trammels: they portrayed men such as they knew them to be; they represented events such as they witnessed; they depicted passions such as they felt warm in their own hearts; and Corneille, by recurring to these writers, Que ce divin esprit faisait de notre rime. Me fit devenir poete aussitot qu’amoureux : Elle eut mes premiers vers, elle eut mes premiers feux, Et bien que maintenant cette belle inhumaine Traite mon souvenir avec un peu de haine, Je me trouve toujours en etat de l’aimer; Je me sens tout emu quand jel’entends nommer; Et par le doux effet d’une prompte tendresse, Mon cceur, sans mon aveu, recommit sa maitresse. AprSs beaucoup de vceux et de soumissions, Un malheur rompt le cours de nos affections; Mais tout mon amour en elle consommee, Je ne vois rien d’aimable aprfis l’avoir aimee; Aussi n’aime-je plus, et nul objet vainqueur N’a possede depuls ma veine ni mon coeur. Corneille Poesies Diverses.
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