works, of which the better part are absolutely incomparable, and of which the rest contain passages no one of his imitators has yet equalled. Mdlle. Poisson (daughter to the actor Du Croisy) has left us a portrait of Molière which is interesting as coming from a contemporary. "He was," says the fair writer, "neither too stout, nor too thin. As to height, he was rather above than below the middle size; his carriage was noble, and his leg finely formed; he had a serious air, and walked gravely. His complexion was dark, his nose and mouth were rather large, and his lips a little thick; his eyebrows were very black, and the changes of his physiognomy incessant. As to character, he was gentle, kind and generous." Of these, and of all his moral qualities, we needed no assurance; they are sufficiently attested by the entire course of his life. Molière was one of those rare beings in whom extraordinary genius is allied to extraordinary virtue. Full of the "milk of human kindness," upright, sincere, affectionate, and just, not all his deep knowledge of human foibles and defects could destroy his ready indulgence to human weakness, or his pity for human woe; and all his sad experience of man's perversity failed to produce in him a hatred of his kind. Equal in talent and in Christian humility, in Christian charity, in misfortune and in fame, we know of few things imbued with more profound morality than the life of the glorious and suffering Molière.

NOTICE ON MOLIERE'S COMPANY.

Ir may not perhaps be wholly uninteresting to our readers to know something of the actors and actresses with whose aid Molière achieved his great theatrical triumphs. The following is the list of the principal members of the once-famous Illustre Théâtre.

Amongst the women the most celebrated were the two sisters Béjart-Madeleine and Armande-and the wives of De Brie, of Beauval, of Du Croisy, and of Duparc. With the exception of the Béjarts, of Baron, and of one or two others, all the actors of Molière's company were gentlemen, or what implies a still higher degree of birth-gentilshommes; the latter term signifying that in all times the families from whence they sprung were noble, and unsullied by intermixture with any race less This circumstance, so little in accordance with French habits and manners, may in some measure be accounted for by calling to mind the extraordinary period

pure.

of French history in which it took place. The Fronde was fresh in the memory of every one; and it was principally during this very curious portion of Louis XIV.'s life, during the regency of Anne of Austria, that the most famous theatrical companies were formed. Nothing in the modern annals of any other country can give an idea of the utter overthrow of all social conventions which took place throughout France during the Fronde. In the long civil wars, terrible and absurd at the same time, known under this name, is to be discovered the strangest mixture of ribaldry and revolt. Sword-begirt magistrates, and steel-clad bishops; court dames turning from the altar to the camp; factious poets framing conceits on the battle-field, and planning battles in the boudoir-these are a few of the odd contortions of character visible in this epoch, where every position was false, and almost every act of men's lives contrasted with their dispositions and their habits. From the tent to the green-room there appears to have been but a step, for we meet with more than one Roscius whose stage-apprenticeship has been made in "battle-plain and tented field "-Floridor, for instance; whom Molière, in his 'Impromptu de Versailles,' spared alone out of all his brethren of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and who was so beloved by the public that they obliged him to give up the part of Néron, in Britannicus,' because they would not see him represent the character of a tyrant. Josias de Soulas de Prinefosse was the son of a nobleman of German extraction, who having embraced the Catholic faith settled with his family in France. Josias, when he had finished his studies, like most well-born young men without fortune, took to the military profession; and on leaving the BodyGuards of Louis XIII. entered as ensign into the regiment of Rambure. Several companies of this regiment were put down, and M. de Soulas found himself suddenly without any pecuniary resources; upon which he resolved to lay down the sword, and enlist into a more pacific troop. He did so, and obtained at once immense success at the theatre of the Marais and at that of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, under the name of Floridor. Equally admired

as a private individual and as an excellent actor, he was respected for his morality, and much favoured by the king, to whom he was personally known. Somewhat similar was the history of La Thorillière. This young

man, of the family of Le Noir de la Thorillière, gentilhomme et capitaine de cavalerie, felt such a strong wish to go upon the stage, that he solicited a permission to that effect from Louis XIV., who at first refused, bidding him reflect on so extraordinary a determination. He reflected, and renewed his request, which the king, this time, granted, and La Thorillière entered into Molière's company in May, 1662. After Molière's death he attached himself to the Hôtel de Bourgogne, where he continued until the year 1679, when he died. His son succeeded him at the Théâtre Français, and one of his daughters married Baron. La Thorillière's great friend seems to have been La Grange, with whom he went, in 1667, to Flanders, to obtain the king's authorization to play 'Tartuffe.' Charles Varlet de la Grange belonged to a family than which there is no better in the lesser nobility of France; and the reason that drove him to a theatrical career was the annoyance he suffered from his guardian in early years. These two friends owed their death to the same cause; La Thorillière, to the grief occasioned him by his eldest daughter's elopement with d'Ancourt; and La Grange, to the circumstance of having married his only child to a man who deceived and ill-treated her. Philibert Gassaud, Sire du Croisy, had organized a provincial company when Molière's fame spread itself abroad, and he soon joined the latter and accompanied him to Paris. For Du Croisy was written the part of Tartuffe, in which he is said to have excelled. After Molière's death, he retired to Conflans, near Paris, and passed the rest of his days in piety and good works, esteemed by all his neighbours, but especially by the curé of his parish, who when Du Croisy died was too much affected to be able to perform the funeral service over his friend. This actor's wife was also a person of good birth, nearly related to Monsieur du Landas, lieutenant-general in command at La Rochelle, and cousin to Joseph du Landas du Pin, a

M. du Croisy's

member of the company du Roi. youngest daughter, Marie-Angélique Gassaud, married the celebrated performer Paul Poisson, and has left us some very interesting memoirs of her times.

Amongst other details but little familiar to the English reader, is the circumstance of many of the principal female parts in the comedies of Louis XIV.'s era having been written for and played by male performers. For instance, Bélise in the Femmes Savantes,' Madame Jourdain in the 'Bourgeois Gentilhomme,' and Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe,' were all parts in which Hubert, and after his death De Beauval, won extreme favour from the public. De Beauval's reputation as an actor was entirely owing to the way in which Molière knew how to suit each part to the individual who was to enact it. Excepting the female characters, De Beauval succeeded in nothing but in the parts of simpletons—les rôles de niais, as they were styled. During the rehearsals of the 'Malade Imaginaire,' Mdlle. De Beauval was exceedingly angry with Molière for the manner in which he corrected every one except her husband. "You torment us all, and you say nothing to him," exclaimed the irascible dame. "I should be very sorry to make a remark to Beauval," answered the poet; "I should only spoil his acting; nature has given him better lessons for the part he is playing (that of the silly Thomas Diafoirus), than I could.'

Another famous member of Molière's troop, who, like La Thorillière, left the army for the stage, was Guillaume Marcoureau, Sire de Brécourt. In 1658, shortly after his joining Molière, he had the misfortune to kill a coachman, who had been insolent to him, on the road to Fontainebleau. Obliged to fly, he took refuge in Holland, and served some time under the orders of the Prince of Orange. During his residence in this country, the French government, for political reasons, was actively trying to make sure of a person, a native of France, who had been traced to Holland, and whose concealment defied research. Brécourt, anxious to return to his own country, offered to assist in discovering the criminal, and