A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature . ains doubtful whether of 274 THEORY OF THE TRAGIC ART IN FRANCE. their own inclination they would ever have made choiceof more comprehensive designs, and, if so, in what way theywould have filled them up. The most distinguished amongthem have certainly not been deficient in means and a particular examination of their different jjroductions wecanuot show them any favour; but, on a general view, theyare more deserving of pity than censure; and when, undersuch unfavourable circumstances, they yet produce what isexcellent, they are d
A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature . ains doubtful whether of 274 THEORY OF THE TRAGIC ART IN FRANCE. their own inclination they would ever have made choiceof more comprehensive designs, and, if so, in what way theywould have filled them up. The most distinguished amongthem have certainly not been deficient in means and a particular examination of their different jjroductions wecanuot show them any favour; but, on a general view, theyare more deserving of pity than censure; and when, undersuch unfavourable circumstances, they yet produce what isexcellent, they are doubly entitled to our admiration, althoughwe can by no means admit the justice of the common-placeobservation, that the overcoming of difficulty is a source ofpleasure, nor find anything meritorious in a work of artmerely because it is artificially composed. As for the claimwhich the French advance to set themselves up, in spite of alltheir one sidedness and inadequacy of view, as the lawgiversof taste, it must be rejected with becoming USE MADE OF TUE SPANISH TUEATRE. 275 LECTURE XIX. Use at first made of the Spaiiisli Theatre by the French—General Cha-racter of Comeille, Racine, and Yoltoire—Review of the principalWorks of CorneiUe and of Racine—Thomas Comeille. and Crebillon. I HAVE briefly noticed all that was necessary to mentionof the antiquities of the French sta,fre. The duties of thepoet were gradually more rigorously laid down, under abelief in the authority of the ancients, and the infallibilityof Aristotle. By their own inclination, however, the poetswere led to the Spanish theatre, as long as the Dramatic Artin France, under a native education, had not attained its fullmaturity. They not only imitated the Spaniards, but, fromthis mine of ingenious invention, even borrowed largely anddirectly. I do not merely allude to the earlier times underRichelieu; this state of things continued through the wholeof the first half of the age of Louis XIV.; and
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