CORNEILLE.

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mentiois, as another cause for it, the labour he be-stowed: since he spent a year in meditating the sub-ject. There might be another reason, to which neitherCorneile nor his biographer allude — that this playoccasioied him a triumph over a rival. Gilbert broughtout a trigedy on the same subject a few months before: asit is aclnowledged that Corneille’s was written first, he,perhaps, heard of the subject, and took the details fromthe nowl in question. However that may be, Gilbert’splay wis never acted a second time ; yet it met withpowerfil patrons in its fall, and was published, with aflourish ng dedication to the king’s brother ; but nothingcould preserve it from oblivion. The German criticsare particularly severe on “ Rodogune,” and with somejustice: there is want of nature in the situations andsentimeits ; we are attached to none of the characters ;and the heroine herself is utterly insignificant.

Corneille had now reached the acme of his fame.Other pays succeeded, which did not deserve the nameof tragedies, but ought, as Voltaire remarks, to be entitledheroic omedies.* These pieces were of unequal merit;having lere and there traces of the great master’s hand,but defective as wholes. Usually, he introduces onecharacter of power and interest that elevates them, andwhich, vhen filled by a good actor, rendered them suc-cessful ; but they were not hailed with the enthusiasmthat attended his earlier plays. The great Condelooked old on “ Don Sancho,” and it was heard of nomore; while the fastidious taste of the French revoltedfrom the subject of “ Theodore.” Worse overthrow wasin store. “ Pertharite,” founded on a Lombard story,failed abogether ; and its ill fortune, he tells us, so dis-gusted him as to induce him to retreat entirely from thetheatre. He turned his thoughts to other works. He

* It is curious enough that such pieces often replace the higher tragedywith great effect in days when poetry is at a low ebb, and an audiencedesires rather to be amused than deeply moved. Such at this time are thedelightful dramas of Sheridan Knowles , such the charming “ Lady ofLyons,” which portray the serious romance of real life, and impart theinterest of situation and character, without pretending to the sublime ter-rors or pathos of heroic tragedy.

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