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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

It must be remarked that, in the favourite of theselearned ladies of the stage, Trissotin, the spectatorsperceived the Magnus Apollo of the real ones, l’abheCotin; and, as the epigram Trissotin recites wasreally written by Cotin, there can he no doubt thatMoliere held up the literary productions of the man toridicule — but it is false that he made him personallylaughable. Cotin was a priest; and, when Moliere made Trissotin a layman, who aspired to the hand of oneof the personages, he might believe that he took allpersonal sting from his satire. The public fixed thename of Vadim on Menage: the latter was far too cleverto allow that the cap fitted. “ Is it to be borne thatthis man should thus make game of us ? ” said madamede Rambouillet to Menage, on their return from thefirst representation of the play. “ Madame,” saidMenage, “ the play is admirable; there is not a wordto be said against it.”

Moliere ’s career was drawing to a close; he wasoverworked, and did not take sufficient care of hishealth: he despised the medicinal art such as it thenexisted, and rejected its remedies. “ What do you dowith your doctor ? ” asked the king, when Moliere applied for a canonicate for the son of M. de Mauvil-lain, the physician, whose patient he said “ he hadthe honour to be.” “We converse together,” he replied ;“ he writes prescriptions which I do not take, and Irecover.” A weak chest and a perpetual cough wasindeed best medicated by the sober regimen and milkdiet to which he long adhered ; and while he adhered toit his life seemed safe. Mutual friends had interferedwith success in reconciling him and his wife ; and theorder of his simple table being altered by her presence,he yielded to her instigations in adopting a more gene-rous diet: his cough became worse, in consequence.1673. When he brought out the “ Malade Imaginaire ” heAitat. was really ill; hut such was his sense of duty towardshis fellow comedians, that he would not he turned fromhis intention of acting the principal character. The