through the medium of the Gospel. Religion infused an all-pervading spirit into literature, learning, the drama, and society at large. Molière seems alone not to Not that we mean

have felt this universal influence. thereby to censure him or to look upon him as a freethinker, which he was not; but to consider him as a man whose good sense abhorred all fanaticism, and made him content to be unostentatiously pious and moral like his own Cléante in 'Tartuffe.' We mean simply to show how entirely independent he was of his age and of its reigning fashions, whether religious or moral or political. He evidently looks at humanity at large, views it through a telescope, and paints those features of it which are eternal, and, in their endless variety, the same in all countries and all times. The Jansenist Baillet says of him in his 'Jugements des Savants,' "Monsieur de Molière is one of the most dangerous enemies that the world or this age has raised up against Christianity and the Church." This is one of those erroneous opinions which violent religious party-spirit may lead a sectarian to adopt, but it is as far from the truth as it would be to say that Molière was a follower of the doctrines of Loyola. Molière, like Shakspere, and some one or two other great geniuses, who may be said to fill the space between the Homeric and Alexandrine epochs, between the primitive and the civilized ages,—paints human nature as it really is, without exception, and without thought of any particular opinion, of any fixed dogma, of any formal doctrine. Mankind is his constant study; the workings of the human heart the ceaseless object of his labours. He is by far more profoundly, more entirely human (menschlich as the Germans say, a word of which there is no adequate synonyme) than even Göthe, who nevertheless threw a pretty scrutinizing glance into the vanities and weaknesses of our nature, but who did it from too high. an eminence, and whose utter disdain for the whole species prevented him sometimes from examining near enough the objects he was to copy. On reading the exclamation of Faust at the end of the second part (after Göthe has dragged his hero through the inazy depths of every reli

gion, from the Egyptian Isis and the Grecian Jupiter down to the Catholic Satan, and run riot with him through every system of philosophy from Anaxagoras and Thales to Spinosa-Paracelsus):

66

'Stünd' ich, Natür! vor dir ein Mann allein!"

(Were I, oh nature! but a man only, a simple human being in thy sight!)—

one remembers almost involuntarily the words (used in so different a sense) of Orgon in 'Tartuffe :'

...

"C'est un homme qui . . . . ah! ... un homme un homme, enfin”

and one can scarce help imagining that, in the one case, we see the expression of conscious pride and satisfaction at having understood and mastered the mightiest subject for human contemplation-man; and, in the other, an outbreaking of regret at having neglected for wild theories and fruitless searchings after the incomprehensible, the infinite, the healthier study of mere humanity.

BIOGRAPHY OF MOLIÈRE.

JEAN-BAPTISTE POQUELIN was born in Paris on the 15th January, 1622, in a house in the Rue Saint Honoré, at the corner of the Rue des Vieilles Etuves. Both by father and mother he was descended from a race of upholsterers. His father, besides his trade, held the appointment of valet-de-chambre tapissier to the king of France, and destined his son to the inheritance of his place. Many members of the Poquelin family, however, had held positions which in some cases conferred even the rights and privileges of nobility. Several were judges and consuls of the city of Paris; and amongst the manuscripts of the king's library may be seen a stamped receipt for a bill, dated the 8th January, 1663, and signed by Baptiste Poquelin, nobleman and merchant of Paris. But these aristocratical connections do not appear to have contributed in any degree to raise the ambition of the head of the House of Poquelin; he seems to have looked upon the continuance to his son of his own functions about the royal person, as the height of honour which it could be permitted him to attain. The boy, from an early age brought up in the shop as an apprentice, knew little more at fourteen than how to write, read, and cast accounts, with other elementary branches of his future profession. His grandfather, however, whose favourite haunt was the theatre, seems first to have applied the match to the ready prepared combustibles of the youth's imagination, by taking him frequently to see the performances at the Hôtel de Bourgogne; and, even at the risk of being thought tedious, we cannot forego this opportunity of giving our readers some slight idea of the theatrical representations which exercised such a powerful influence over Molière in the choice of a profession. At the end

of Louis XIII.'s reign, and in the early part of Louis XIV.'s, the taste for low comedy and farce was very general, even among the highest classes. Three actors, called Gauthier Garguille, Turlupin, and Gros Guillaume, were, towards the period of which we treat, the idols of the public in all burlesque pieces. Firmly united, not only by their profession but by a strong feeling of personal friendship, the three began by playing in a sort of booth, in which their performances became so celebrated that the Cardinal de Richelieu conceived a desire to witness them. He had no sooner done so than he ordered the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne to engage the comic trio, adding, that none ever left a representation at the Hôtel de Bourgogne without having the spleen. The order was executed; and during three years Gauthier Garguille, Turlupin, and Gros Guillaume, were the delight of the most refined public at that time in Europe. The end of their history is too singular to be passed over in silence. Gros Guillaume was thrown into prison one fine day for having imitated too exactly the grimaces of a certain wealthy magistrate. The terror felt by the poor player at this event caused his death at the end of a very few days; and grief for the loss of their companion so affected the two survivors that they followed him to the grave in less than a week. Molière was about twelve years of age when the comic triumvirate was in full force at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and it is more than probable that Gros Guillaume, Gauthier Garguille, and Turlupin were the first to excite the dramatic sympathies and the admiration of the renowned author of Pounceaugnac and Scapin. Each time he returned home after these excursions, young Poquelin was sadder, more absent in his manner, less inclined to work in the shop, and more averse from the prospects held out to him by a continuance in his father's trade. "Do you wish to make a player of the boy ?" exclaimed old Poquelin indignantly, one day that he met grandfather and grandson returning from the theatre. "Would to heaven," replied the former, "that he were as good a one as Bellerose." This reply was the more likely to

produce a lively impression on the youth, as Bellerose was not only the spoilt child of the public, but enjoyed the special favour of his eminence the cardinal, who went so far as to present him with a magnificent costume in which to play the Menteur of Corneille.* Whether

or not at this period Molière had already determined to take to the stage, is difficult to say; but it is certain that his disgust for his own trade was insurmountable; and unable any longer to bear the thought of it, he applied to his father, and, supported by his grandfather, obtained permission to devote himself at least to studies suited to his tastes. At school, at the College of Clermont (since that of Louis le Grand), superintended by the Jesuits, he in five years went through all the regular studies, including rhetoric and philosophy; and, moreover, formed several connections which later in life had a strong influence over his opinions and his destiny. The Prince de Conti, brother of the great Condé, never (even after he turned Jansenist and wrote against the drama) forgot that Molière had been his schoolfellow. Chapelle, his great friend, procured for him lessons from his preceptor, Gassendi the philosopher, traces of which may be discovered in many pages of Molière, and particularly in the Femmes Savantes.' It was his conferences with Gassendi which inspired him with the desire to translate Lucretius. He did so, partly in verse, partly in prose; but unluckily this translation has shared the fate of many of his early pieces, the manuscripts of which are lost. Bernier, the traveller, and in after years the friend of the Emperor Aurungzebe, and the poet Hesnault, the satirist of Colbert, formed the little group of his school intimates, amongst whom was also to be found the hot-headed chivalrous Cyrano de Bergerac. The latter, however, was considered too turbulent a spirit to be admitted without some

*We read in the memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, that the famous Duchesse de Montbazon could not make her mind to receive favourably the addresses of M. de la Rochefoucauld on account of his resemblance to Bellerose, who looked too coxcombical and affected