was privately conducted without any noise, or parade. Priests were appointed to conduct the funeral; but, with strict injunctions not to accompany it with singing, lest the matter should be made too public. But this plan was entirely frustrated by the resolute zeal of Moliere's friends, who drew an immense concourse of people from all parts of the city to the funeral, and with lighted flambeaux accompanied the body to the grave, Madame Moliere, who headed them, exclaiming aloud as she went along: "It is no won"der that hypocrites should refuse the right of christian sepulture "to a man who was, all his life, the scourge and terror of hypo"crites." As soon as his interment precluded further manifestations of public respect to the remains of their admired Moliere, the poets and wits of every denomination, and all the retainers to the muses in France, set themselves to the work of embalming his memory, and Paris was inundated with elegiac verses, monodies and epitaphs. One poetaster in particular having penned an epitaph which completely met his own approbation, presented it to the great CONDE, who, as we have already said, not only greatly admired but loved Moliere. The prince received it graciously, but having read a couplet or two, returned it to the writer with manifestations of scorn and resentment, saying, "Take it away! take it "away! You write Moliere's epitaph!!-would to God he were "alive to write your's!!"

The character of Moliere as a dramatic poet is perhaps, more perfectly decided and unquestionable than that of any dramatic poet of any age or country: as he has in a greater degree escaped the censures of cavillers and hypercritics since his death. With all that has been said in his praise we most heartily concur; and that our readers will join us, if they will but read his comedies, we are firmly persuaded. Among those who could best understand him, because they best understood his language and knew the manners he described, (the people of France,) there has not been, since his rivals and their jealous malice along with them were laid in the dust, we believe, one detractor from his fame. Of those who have written of him, the most wise and enlightened men, have been his warmest panegyrists. Voltaire says of him, that he was the best comic poet that ever lived in any age or country; he understood Moliere, and was therefore qualified to speak confidently of his merits; but he did not understand the poets of other countries, and therefore was not capable of making a strictly just com

parison. He understood Shakspeare perhaps not so well as a modern scholar understands Eschylus, yet he has censured him with as much confidence as he has praised his countryman; and thus disables his opinion. Yet from the acknowledgment of British writers we can take enough to establish the glories of Moliere. From one of those we adopt the following character of our poet, as one that more immediately than any other we have read, corresponds with our opinion.

"The rank Moliere held in literature has been long estimated and decided. We have nothing to do but to compare his works with whatever we know of, perfect and admirable in the ancients, and we shall find him, in every point of view, rising greatly superior to them all. He has all the pointed severity of Aristophanes, without his wickedness and malignity: To the beauty, the fidelity, the portraiture of Menander, he has added higher and more finished graces of his own: He has the nerve and strength of Plautus, without his grossness or obscenity; and he has from nature and genius, assisted by philosophic observation, a thousand times more elegance than Terence.

"Nature and the age in which he lived supplied him with an inexhaustible source of materials. Comedy took a new form in his hands, and became a scourge for the vices and follies of all ranks, to the truth of which, all were implicitly obliged to subscribe: And little doubt can be entertained but that, if he could have written independently and been independently attended, he would have carried comedy-true comedy as correct as it can be defined-to a higher degree of perfection than any author has done either before or since.

"Moliere, however, was a reformer; and reformers in any way dare not innovate, all at once. Could he have done this, he would have written no dialogue in verse; he would have made his characters at once speak the language of nature. But there are higher crimes to accuse him of. Pure morality would probably have been laughed at by a people full of intrigue, and given up to every licentiousness; on this account, and I most sincerely believe on no other, did Moliere introduce his native and natural humour, his strong remarks and his sterling truths through mediums which neither his heart nor his understanding at all times approved.

"To make children ridicule their parents, deride their observations, laugh at their age, and insult their infirmities are circum

stances true comedy should reject with contempt. To introduce adultery, and endeavour by subtle devices and insinuating persuasion, to imprint on young minds a love of vice, is revolting to true comedy; to recommend knavery by giving it a favourable air, and permitting it at last to triumph over simplicity and honesty, has nothing to do with true comedy. But, says a French author, Moliere though truly honourable, was an actor and manager. It was therefore necessary he should think of the receipt of the house, and this receipt too often imposed silence on his veracity, and of course diminished his real glory. It was necessary to make the pit laugh. Oh that so great a genius should be sunk to so low a degree of humiliation!!

"If, however, vice through Moliere became at times winning and seducing, he did not fail at other times to expose it to contempt and ridicule; but whenever he did so, it was sure to raise him up a host of enemies. This, in his dependent situation, as we have seen, gave him throughout his life a thousand vexations, and induced him sometimes to conform to the age rather than revolt against it. In short, when he considered himself merely as a poet, he fell into the errors of poets; whereas, as a philosopher, he shone with all the truth of a moralist and the dignity of a man.

"For the rest:-as an actor, he possessed a noble figure, a marking and expressive face, and a clear and commanding voice: through these he conveyed the utmost force of comic expression into his characters, regulated by an understanding correct, powerful and commanding. As a manager, he made it the study of his life to consider the interest of all those who were embarked with him in his undertaking, according to their respective abilities. He tempered authority with indulgence, determination with affability, and at the head of his company, considered himself as the father of a family, by whom he was beloved and revered.

"As a man, he was a fond husband, and a warm friend-honest, punctual, and just. He was admired by the great, esteemed and valued by his equals, and almost adored by his inferiors, to whom as far as his abilities permitted, he was a generous benefactor."

Such is the character given of him by a British writer, who however neglected to mention that this great and good man was in the most important circumstances of domestic life much less happy than he deserved to be. It seems that he married the daughter of a fellow comedian, of the name of Le Bejart, and with her led

a very unhappy life, ever haunted by jealousy, and too sensible of the fair one's frailties. To his own experience some have attributed the great success with which he painted the broils of domestic life, and the various passions which agitate the human breast.

(To be continued.)

BIOGRAPHY.

For the Mirror of Taste

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI.

In all Biography there is not to be found an article so extraordinary, curious, or interesting as the LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI, THE CELEBRATED FLORENTINE ARTIST. Originally written by himself, in Italian. It was, something more than forty years ago, translated into English, by Doctor Nugent, when it so powerfully attracted the attention of Doctor Johnson, that he made it his business to call the attention of the people of England to it by the following account of the work and its author.

"The original of this celebrated performance lay in manuscript above a century and a half. Though it was read with the greatest pleasure by the learned of Italy, no man was hardy enough, during so long a period, to introduce to the world book, in which the

successors of St. Peter were handled so roughly: a narrative, where artists and sovereign princes, cardinals and courtezans, ministers of state and mechanics, are treated with equal impartiality.

"At length, in the year 1730, an enterprising Neapolitan encouraged by Dr. Antonio Cocchi, one of the politest scholars in Europe, published this so much desired work in one volume quarto. The Doctor gave the editor an excellent preface, which, with very slight alteration, is judiciously preserved by the translator, Dr. Nugent: the book is, notwithstanding, very scarce in Italy: the clergy in Naples are very powerful; and though the editor very prudently put Colonia instead of Neapoli in the title page, the sale of Cellini was prohibited; the court of Rome has actually made it an article in their Index Expurgatorius, and pre

vented the importation of the book into any country where the power of the Holy See prevails.

"The life of Benvenuto Cellini is certainly a phenomenon in biography, whether we consider it with respect to the artist himself, or the great variety of historical facts which relate to others: it is indeed a very good supplement to the history of Europe, during the greatest part of the sixteenth century, more especially in what relates to painting, sculpture, and architecture and the most eminent masters in those elegant arts, whose works Cellini praises or censures with peculiar freedom and energy.

"As to the man himself, there is not perhaps a more singular character among the race of Adam: the admired lord Herbert of Cherbury scarce equals Cellini in the number of peculiar qualities which separate him from the rest of the human species.

"He is at once a man of pleasure, and a slave to superstition; a despiser of vulgar notions, and a believer in magical incantations; a fighter of duels, and a composer of divine sonnets; an ardent lover of truth, and a retailer of visionary fancies; an admirer of papal power, and a hater of popes; an offender against the laws, with a strong reliance on divine providence. If I may be allowed the expression, Cellini is one striking feature added to the human form-a prodigy to be wondered at, not an example to be imitated.

"Though Cellini was so blind to his own imperfections as to commit the most unjustifiable actions, with a full persuasion of the goodness of his cause and the rectitude of his intention, yet no man was a keener and more acute observer of the blemishes of others; hence his book abounds with sarcastic wit and satirical expression. Yet though his portraits are sometimes grotesque and overcharged, from misinformation, from melancholy, from infirmity, and from peculiarity of humour; in general it must be allowed that they are drawn from the life, and conformable to the idea given by contemporary writers. His characters of pope Clement the seventh, Paul the third, and his bastard son Pier Luigi; Francis the first, and his favourite mistress madam d'Estampes, Cosmo duke of Florence, and his duchess, with many others, are touched by the hand of a master.

"General history cannot descend to minute details of the domestic life and private transactions, the passions and foibles of great personages; but these give truer representations oftheir characters than all the elegant and laboured compositions of poets and historians.