the Greek, the most remarkable of which were the Electra of Sophocles, and the Hecuba of Euripides, by Baif, and Iphigenia in Aulis, by Subilet; but it does not appear that they were ever performed. Jodelle, born at Paris in 1532, who succeeded to these, took his subjects, not indeed from the Greeks, though still from antiquity; and introduced choruses into his Cleopatra and his Dido, all written in the most barbarous style, and interlarded with the puns and conceits which bad taste had selected from the muse of Italy. These plays, however, delighted all who saw them, and inspired Ronsard with the following laudatory strains, characteristic of the literature of the times: Jodelle, le premier, d'une plainte hardie, Puis, en changeant de ton, chanta, devant nos rois, Et, si bien les sonna, que Sophocle et Ménandre, The performers who at that time were in possession of the stage, les Confreres de la Passion, and les Clercs de la Rayoche, refused at first to perform Jodelle's tragedies; but, finding that they became favourites with the public, the former consented, and, under the title of Comédiens de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne, attracted crowded audiences; and thus Jodelle may be considered as the founder of the French stage. His example encouraged La Péruse, who translated the Medea of Seneca; St. Gelois, who translated the Sophonisba of Trissino; Grevin, who had a Mort de César acted at the college of Beauvais, and Jean de la Faille, who imitated some situations of the Troads in his Gabaomites. The style of all these was miserably bad. One says, 'L'amour mange mon sang, l'amour mon sang demande.' Another exclaims, 'Votre enfer, dieu d'enfer, pour mon bien je desire! Sachant l'enfer d'amour, de tous enfers, le pire.' Garnier came after these, and wrote at least eight tragedies; seven of which were accompanied with choruses. They were very much admired, and passed through fifteen editions, the last of which was in 1618. His contemporaries prefer him to all his predecessors; and Ste. Marthe says he is inferior to none of the ancients. The following soliloquy of Cesar, returning victorious to Rome, will give an idea of his style :-- "O sourcilleuses tours! ô coteaux decorés ! O vous! murs que les dieux ont maçonnés eux mêmes, Ne ressentez vous point le plaisir de vos cœurs, Par Par tant de gloire acquise aux nations étranges Danger knows full well That Cæsar is more dangerous than he!' Hardy, the most prolific of all the French dramatic writers, was posterior to Garnier, the one dying in 1590, the other in 1630. He produced more than six hundred dramatic pieces; but he is censured for having made all his personages speak the same language, and still more-we shudder while we speak it for violating the unities. His best piece is Mariamne, which served as the model of Tristan's Mariamne, a play that counterpoised the success of Corneille's early productions. Fifty-six plays (the poor remains of all his labours) were printed in 1628, in six volumes. Mairet was born at Besançon in 1604 and died in 1686. He was the predecessor, the friend, the rival, the enemy, and then again the friend of Corneille, and the author of twelve plays, the best of which is Sophonisba, imitated from Trissino, and which remained in possession of the stage even after Corneille had appeared. It was brought out only seven years before the Cid, and is a good example of the manner of the times. Syphax, husband of Sophonisba, intercepts a letter which she had written to Massinissa, who was besieging Cyrte, as an ally of the Roman army, commanded by Scipio. Sophonisba had become enamoured of him, at first sight, as she one day saw him reconnoitring the ramparts, and writes the fatal letter, with which her husband reproaches her, thus: 'Tu fais d'un ennemi l'objet de tes desirs! Qu'en Qu'en cherchant l'amitié de ce prince Numide Syphax is afterwards killed in battle; she says he is too happy to be dead, and entreats some of her suite to kill her, but not in such a tone as to ensure obedience, and her confidant tells her that there is always time enough for that remedy, adding 'Vous n'auriez pas besoin de beaucoup d'artifice, Pour vous rendre agréable aux yeux de Massinisse.' Sophonisba exclaims—' Plût aux Dieux!' but corrects herself, and adds 6 Je n'attends rien du tout du coté de mes charmes. Il vaut mieux se servir de celui de ma main;' and then follows some very smart reasoning between the heroine and two of her confidants, whether her hand, that is, killing herself, or her charms, that is, killing Massinissa, be the better method. Phénice says, 'Au reste la douleur ne vous a pas éteint Ni la clarté des yeux, ni la beauté du teint. Massinissa, however, enchanted also at first sight, requests permission to take un honnête baiser, à son aise,' which of course is granted; and Scipio exclaims Massinisse en un jour voit, aime et se marie!' The Numidian suddenly recollects himself after his wedding, and somewhat curiously inquires Apropos où naquit, en quel temps, et pourquoi, La bonne volonté que vous avez pour moi ?' The last acts, however, are pathetic. In the Mariamne of Tristan, Herod, annoyed by a dream, asks his confidant, Phérore, what the doctor says of dreams? Phérore answers: ، Il disoit que l'humeur qui dans nos coeurs domine, A voir certains objets, en dormant, nous incline. Le flegme humide et froid, s'élevant au cerveau, Y vient représenter des brouillards et de l'eau. La bile ardente et jaune, aux qualités subtiles, N'y depeint que combats, qu'embrasements de villes. Le sang, qui tient de l'air, et reponds au printemps, Rend les moins fortunés, dans leurs songes, contents.' To his two confidants who endeavour to persuade him that Mariamne is a rock, Herode gallantly answers: Si le divin objet dont je suis idolâtre, Passe pour un rocher, c'est un rocher d'albâtre. c 2 Un Un écueil agréable, où l'on voit éclater Il n'est point de rubis vermeil comme sa bouche, La mettent, pour le moins, au rang des diamants." Rotrou, almost a contemporary of Corneille, wrote thirty plays; but his Venceslas is the only one that has kept possession of the stage. It contains some genuine passion, and some nonsense, as the following: 'Qui des deux voulez-vous; de mon cœur ou ma cendre? Ou bien votre refus sera mon assassin?' Mascarille and Jodelet could certainly not have made love more ludicrously to Madeleine and Cathos in the Précieuses Ridicules. These extracts are taken from the very best productions of the dramatic art in France, previous to the Medea and the Cid of Corneille, which latter appeared in 1636; and thus they belong to the epocha in which all our dramatic writers, down to Shirley, flourished. Shirley, indeed, and Corneille may be considered as nearly contemporaries; for the former, between the years 1629 and 1666, when he died, produced thirty-nine plays; and the dramatic career of the latter was included between 1635, when he began with Médée, and 1675, when he concluded with Pulchérine and Suréna. A fair comparison then may be made of the dramatic merit of the two countries, in their earliest days, by balancing all our dramatic writers, from the time of Lord Sackville's Gorbuduc, in 1562, and Still's Gammer Gurton's Needle, in 1566, to James Shirley's first effusion, against all the authors who had written for the French stage, before Corneille's Médée.. Jodelle may be considered as contemporary with: Gorboduc and Gammer Gurton's Needle; to which succeeded: Gascoigne's Jocasta, in blank verse, and Edward's Palemon and Arcite, much admired by Queen Elizabeth. Before 1581 ten tragedies of Seneca had been translated into English, together with Edipus, by Alexander Neville, aged but sixteen. In 1568 a tragedy, on the subject of Tancred and Sigismunda, was written by Robert Wilmot, and shortly afterwards another on the story of Cambyses. But the David and Bethsabe of Peele, produced about the year 1584, six years before the death of Hardy, contained more natural expression of passion, than was to be met with in the whole French theatre before Corneille, and we might, indeed, almost add, since Corneille; and the language is less antiquated, at this day, than that of the Cid. We must support support this opinion by a short extract, regretting that we canDavid is thus described by Joab: not give more. 'Beauteous and bright is he among the tribes, As when the sun, attired in glistering robe, And, bridegroom like, hurls through the gloomy air The starry vault that overhangs the earth: The description of Bethsabe is likewise very beautiful, as are also David's grief for Absalom, and Joab's remonstrance. But the poets who filled up the space in question, and completed what these had begun, were Green, Marlow, Lyly, Legge, Lodge, Shakspeare, Daniel, Beaumont and Fletcher, Marston, Chapman, Randolph, Middleton, Jonson, Earl of Stirling, Field, Dekker, Webster, Ford, Rowley, Massinger, Suckling, Heywood, Phillips, Heminge, with some others. We will deduct nine or ten of these principal names, and compare the remainder with all that existed in France before Corneille; or we will strike out the name of him who never had an equal, and then put the rest in competition with the entire French stage, down to the present hour; and we will still say that, for true imitation of natural feeling, and exquisite poetry, they are superior to any and every thing that France has produced. They did not indeed copy from the Greek or Roman stage; and translation and imitation were very soon discarded by British poets, who took subjects in a wider range, and dressed them in the grand beauties of universal nature. Neither did they restrict the bold delineation of the theme they had chosen by any fictitious rules, which, far from adding real beauties to the tragic muse, take away from it all the development of character and passion, which make it a living picture of the human heart. We have given extracts from the French Sophonisba of Mairet, the rival of Corneille; and we must now be allowed to support our opinion with a few passages from a play on the same subject, treated by one of our old dramatic writers, Marston. Sophonisba thus entreats Massinissa not to give her up to be led captive by Scipio: Sophonisba. Sophonisba, A name for misery much known,— Entreats of thy graced sword this only boon: C 3 O, 'tis |