CONTENTS

RACINE 3
SIR THOMAS BROWNE 27
SHAKESPEARE'S FINAL PERIOD 41
THE LIVES OF THE POETS 59
MADAME DU DEFFAND 67
VOLTAIRE AND ENGLAND 93
A DIALOGUE 115
VOLTAIRE'S TRAGEDIES 121
VOLTAIRE AND FREDERICK THE GREAT 137
THE ROUSSEAU AFFAIR 165
THE POETRY OF BLAKE 179
THE LAST ELIZABETHAN 193
HENRI BEYLE 219
LADY HESTER STANHOPE 241
MR. CREEVEY 253
INDEX 261




RACINE


When Ingres painted his vast 'Apotheosis of Homer,' he represented,
grouped round the central throne, all the great poets of the ancient and
modern worlds, with a single exception--Shakespeare. After some