Corneille, although the latter knew the human heart well, and he showed
himself infallibly wise in composition and dramatic disposition, as well
as an absolutely incomparable master of verse. His tragedies, especially
_Andromache_, _Britannicus_, _Berenice_, _Bajazet_, _Phedre_, and
_Athalie_ will always enchant mankind.

MOLIERE.--Moliere who was admirably gifted to seize the ridiculous with
its causes and consequences, very quick and penetrating in insight, armed
with somewhat narrow but solid common-sense calculated to please the
middle classes of all time, possessed prodigious comic humour, and who
never gave the spectator leisure to reflect or breathe--in short, a great
writer although hasty and careless--created a whole repertoire of comedy
(_The School of Women_, _Don Juan_, _Tartufe_, _The Misanthrope_,
_Learned Ladies_) which left all known comedy far behind, which
eliminated all rivalry in his own time, knew eclipse only in the middle
of the eighteenth century, and for the last hundred and forty years has
proved the delight of Europe. He remains the master of universal comedy.

BOILEAU.--Boileau was only a man of good sense, of ability, and of
excellent taste, who wrote verse industriously. This was not enough to
constitute a great poet but enough to make him what he was, a diverting
and acute satirist, an agreeable moralist and critic in verse--which his
master Horace had been so often--expert, dexterous, and possessing much
authority. His _Poetic Art_ for long was the tables of the law of
Parnassus, and even now can be read not only with pleasure but even with
profit.

LA FONTAINE.--La Fontaine was one of the greatest poets of any epoch. He
had a profound sentiment for nature, a fine and penetrating knowledge of
the character of men he depicted under the names of animals; he was free