nation, when a writer like Schiller, whose talents secure him an unbounded popularity and influence, has the grace to exert them uniformly in the great cause of virtue and human happiness. No compensation in the power of subjects or sovereigns to bestow can be too great for such deserts:

We may say with safety, that the patent of nobility in the degree of baron, which the grand duke of Weimar wrought out, as the biographer expresses it, auswirkte, for Schiller, of his own mere motion, was not an extravagant reward, though intended doubtless as a high distinction.

139

GEOFFROY ON FRENCH DRAMATIC LITERA

TURE.*

[North American Review, April, 1820.]

THIS work is a collection of theatrical articles, published successively in one of the French newspapers, from about the year 1800 to the year 1814. They were considered at the time so much superior to the ordinary ephemeral matter which appears in this form, that they gave a very great vogue to the Journal de l'Empire. It is said that twenty thousand copies were at that time circulated daily. An edition of about six thousand was and is the ordinary sale of the best French journals. The author, M. Geoffroy, had been Professor of Rhetoric at the Collège Mazarin at Paris before the revolution. Soon after the beginning of the troubles, his political orthodoxy was called in question, and he thought it expedient to retire for a time from his station and take refuge in the country. He offered himself to some parish committee, as a candidate for the office of village schoolmaster, having previously assumed a rustic tone and dress. His qualifications being found sufficient for the place, he entered upon it, and retained it till the return of Bonaparte had restored some degree of order at Paris. Soon after this he repaired to the capital and was immediately attached to the Journal des Debats, as it was then called, as editor of the theat

* Cours de littérature dramatique; ou Recueil, par ordre de matières, des feuilletons de Geoffroy, précédé d'une notice historique sur sa vie. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1819. The fifth volume, completing the work, was published in 1820.

rical department, by no means the least essential one in all the French journals. This department is occupied, in general, by a notice of the new pieces, as they appear, or by a criticism on the merits of the actors. But Geoffroy gave it a wider range, and undertook a vigorous and free analysis of every thing that was acted, old or new. He examines with the same boldness and care the works of Corneille, Racine, Molière and Voltaire, as those of the contemporary writers. Hence, these articles became, as they are entitled in this collection, a course of lectures on the dramatic literature of France; and what they want in solidity from the ephemeral form in which they made their appearance, is amply compensated by the vivacity and point derived from the same cause.

It is obvious that the author, in order to execute an enterprize of this kind with so much success, must have possessed very considerable literary merit; and accordingly his style places him very high among the modern French writers. It is manly and vigorous, and at the same time pure; although of course very unequal in different articles. There is a vein of bitterness and satire running through the whole, which is very amusing, and is perhaps essential to the success of a critic. The author's opinions in literature and philosophy took their colour, like those of other people, from the circumstances of his life and education. He received the latter in one of the Jesuits' colleges, where he was naturally taught the opinions of the old school, and the persecutions they afterwards brought upon him as naturally endeared them to him still more strongly. Every thing modern, and above all every thing that savours of the modern philosophy, is an abomination to him. The age of Louis XIV is the golden age of France in learning and politics. The best writers of the last century bear no comparison with the geniuses of that period, and those of the present day are mere pig

mies, almost too contemptible to require being crushed. These ideas taken in the abstract are as old as the age of Nestor, and about as probable now as they were then; but they may be defended at different times with different degrees of plausibility, and it must be allowed, that, at least in a literary point of view, Geoffroy makes out a pretty good case on this side of the question. The colossal reputation of Voltaire was the principal objection to his theory, and he accordingly loses no opportunity of attacking him with any weapon that is most convenient. The collection is interspersed with occasional digressions on subjects of moral, political, and historical interest, anecdotes, bon mots, and biographical sketches, so that it forms altogether a very pleasant reading for a leisure hour, and we venture to hope that a few notices and extracts will contribute to the entertainment of some of our readers.

The great Corneille is of course the god of our author's idolatry. Corneille with every true born Frenchman is the beau idéal of the sublime, as Racine is of the beautiful. The former of these distinguished poets was, in the first instance, according to our critic, a 'little lawyer' at Rouen. We find him in the next place attached to the service of Cardinal Richelieu, in rather a singular capacity. The Cardinal, who justly holds a high rank among the statesmen of Europe, seems to have thought that he could carry into poetry the same process that he employed in politics. As in the accomplishment of his political designs he left all the trouble of the execution to his agents, civil and military, while he reserved to himself all the glory of the success, he seems to have supposed that by ordering plays to be written and acted in his name, he should be justly entitled to the reputation of a dramatic poet. He accordingly appointed a committee of five poets, corresponding in number with the acts

necessary to a perfect play, and when he wanted to write a tragedy he issued his orders, and each of his poets produced an act. Corneille was one of this committee. Our critic reprimands the Cardinal for this singular abuse of authority with just severity.

'The metromania or rather the theatromania of Cardinal Richelieu is one of the most singular absurdities which ever could have crazed the head of a prelate or a minister. It was both strange and indecent to see a Cardinal of the holy Roman church amusing himself with writing comedies, while the church was anathematizing comedies and comedians. Nothing could be more ridiculous than a great statesman travestied into a poor author and miserable poet. The great minister, whose vast designs confounded the pride of Austria and made Europe tremble, seemed very small, when he was painfully planning the miserable intrigue of a flat tragi-comedy.

'Richelieu introduced upon the world's stage some tragedies, such as Montmorency, Cinq-mars, and de Thou, Marillac, UrbainGrandier &c; these might inspire terror and pity;—but his tragi-comedies could cause nothing but disgust and ennui. Strange! the most profound politician of his age enlivened his dramas with mere commonplaces and trifles, while a little lawyer of Rouen, an obscure man, shut up in his cabinet, introduced into his pieces the greatest interests and the most profound policy. Corneille was upon the stage what Richelieu was in the council room. Each filled his place.'

The Cardinal, who was aware no doubt that a piece, in order to produce any reputation to its author, must not only contain the five necessary acts, but must be applauded by the public, after providing for the first of these conditions in the way just mentioned, instituted a commission of forty, whose business it was to praise the pieces published in his name, and condemn all others.

*The reader will remember that all the persons mentioned were executed, by order of Richelieu, as conspirators.