composed plays herself. It is to her, and her taste
for the stage, that the world owes _Esther_ and
_Athalie_, which Racine wrote for the girls of St.
Cyr. Madame de Maintenon wished to see one of
Madame de Brinon's pieces. She found it such as
it was, that is to say, so bad that she begged to
have no more such played, and that instead some
beautiful piece of Corneille or Racine should be
selected, choosing such as contained least about
love. These young girls, therefore, undertook the
rendering of _Cinna_, quite passably for children who
had been trained for the stage only by an old nun.
They then played _Andromaque_; and, whether it was
that the actresses were better chosen, or gained in
grace through experience, it was only too well
represented for Madame de Maintenon, causing her to
fear that this amusement would fill them with sentiments
the reverse of those which she wished to inspire.
However, as she was persuaded that amusements
of this sort were good for youth, she wrote
to Racine, begging him to compose for her, in his
moments of leisure, some sort of moral or historic
poem, from which love should be entirely banished,
and in which he need not believe that his reputation
was concerned, since it would remain buried at St.
Cyr. The letter threw Racine into great agitation.
He wished to please Madame de Maintenon. To
refuse was impossible for a courtier, and the
commission was delicate for a man who, like him, had
a great reputation to sustain. At last he found in