the personification of an idea or of a folly which has to be ridiculed.

Molière dedicated _The School for Husbands_ to the Duke of Orleans,
the King's only brother, in the following words:--

MY LORD,

I here shew France things that are but little consistent. Nothing can be
so great and superb as the name I place in front of this book; and
nothing more mean than what it contains. Every one will think this a
strange mixture; and some, to express its inequality, may say that it is
like setting a crown of pearls and diamonds on an earthen statue, and
making magnificent porticos and lofty triumphal arches to a mean
cottage. But, my Lord, my excuse is, that in this case I had no choice
to make, and that the honour I have of belonging to your Royal Highness,
[Footnote: Molière was the chief of the troupe of actors belonging to
the Duke of Orleans, who had only lately married, and was not yet
twenty-one years old.] absolutely obliged me to dedicate to you the
first work that I myself published. [Footnote: _Sganarelle_ had
been borrowed by Neufvillenaine; _The Pretentious Ladies_ was only
printed by Molière, because the copy of the play was stolen from him;
_Don Garcia of Navarre_ was not published till after his death, in
1682.] It is not a present I make you, it is a duty I discharge; and
homages are never looked upon by the things they bring. I presumed,
therefore, to dedicate a trifle to your Royal Highness, because I could
not help it; but if I omit enlarging upon the glorious truths I might
tell of you, it is through a just fear that those great ideas would make
my offering the more inconsiderable. I have imposed silence on myself,
meaning to wait for an opportunity better suited for introducing such
fine things; all I intended in this epistle was to justify my action to