trary, Melpomene has long fince trod our ftage in the fandals of her fifter Thalia.

Let us caft our eyes back on the first tragedies which had fuch prodigious fuccefs, about the time of cardinal Richelieu: The Sophonisba of Mairet, the Mariamne of Tristan, and many others; we shall find, that the paffion of love is treated in as familiar, and fometimes in as low a ftile, as their heroifm is expreffed in bombaft and affectation. This is probably the reason why our nation did not, at that time, poffefs one tolerable comedy. The tragic mufe had ufurped all its rights. Moliere feldom gave the lovers he introduces on the scene, a lively or striking paffion, because he was confcious that the tragic writers had been before-hand with him.

Since the Sophonifba of Mairet, which was the first play that preserved any kind of regularity; the declarations of love by heroes, the artful coquettish answers of princeffes, and the gallant lively defcriptions of love, were looked upon as things effential to the tragic stage.

The

The great Corneille, who brought to fuch perfection the true eloquence of poetry, whofe lovers speak a language fo feeling, and yet fo noble, has however inferted in his tragedies several scenes that Boileau thought worthier of Terence, than of the rival and conqueror of Euripides.

I might quote above three hundred of his verses, which would anfwer this description. Not, that fimplicity, which has its charms, and ingenuoufness which comes fo near the true fublime, are not neceffary, to prepare for, or connect together, the more pathetic paffages of the drama. But if these fimple ingenuous touches are useful in tragedy, with how much greater reafon do they belong to noble comedy; this is the point where tragedy and comedy feem to meet. here alone that their limits are confounded together. They afterwards return, each to its natural fphere. The one affumes the comic tone; the other the fublime.

It is

Comedy may therefore be allowed to represent the paffions in their greatest vehemence and force; it may raise our anger,

or

or move our pity, provided it afterwards ferves to furnish matter of mirth and laughter to people of taste and refinement. If it wants the comic ftroke, if it be really and entirely whining; it must then, in fact, become difagreeable and abfurd.

I confefs it is rare to make spectators pass infenfibly from compaffion to gaiety. But this tranfition, difficult as it is to effect in a comedy, is not the lefs natural to mankind. I have remarked elfewhere, that nothing is fo common as unfortunate events, which furnish circumftances of tranfitory mirth. Such is the mind of man. Homer represents even the gods laughing at the aukward manners of Vulcan, at the very time they are affembled to determine the fate of the world.

Hector smiles at the fright of his infant fon Aftyanax, at the fame time that Andromache is drowned in tears. It often happens that in the very horror of battle, of fire, or any other of those misfortunes which attend mankind, an ingenious faying, a pleasant remark will excite our mirth

mirth in the midst of desolation and pity. A french regiment at the battle of Spire, had orders not to give quarter: a german officer is taken, and begs his life; the frenchman replies, Sir, you may ask me any other favour; but for your life, it is impofJible to grant it. The oddity of the answer made it fly about immediately, and caufed loud peals of laughter in the midst of confufion and maffacre. With how much more reafon fhould a fcene of mirth in a comedy fucceed to affecting fentiments! Are we not moved for Alcmena, and yet does not Sofia make us laugh? It is a vain and fruitless attempt to difpute against experience.

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LETTER

To her Serene Highness

The Dutchefs of MAIN E.

MADAM,

You

OU faw the conclufion of that admirable century, to whofe glory you contributed fo much, by your taste and your example; that age which is the model of ours in many respects, and in others a reproach, as it will be to all future ages. It was in those celebrated days, that the Condés, your ancestors, covered with victorious laurels, cultivated and encouraged the arts; that a Boffuet immortalized heroes and inftructed kings; that a Fenelon, the second man in eloquence*, but the first in the art of rendering virtue amiable, taught with fuch charms and grace, the beauty of justice and humanity; that

* Boffuet's funeral orations made him looked as the most eloquent of all the french writers.

upon

the