f the audience which listened to
the first production of his _Precieuses Ridicules_: "Courage, Moliere;
this is genuine comedy!"

France had long been waiting for genuine comedy; waiting rather by an
instinctive requirement of the national genius, and with an aptitude to
appreciate the highest comic art as soon as it might be manifested, than
with any definite conception of the exact thing that was lacking on the
stage. The French nature was precisely fitted to produce and to enjoy
the loftiest style of character-comedy, but no modern literature had
hitherto exhibited that which Moliere was to provide. The author of the
_Precieuses Ridicules_ and _Tartuffe_ was essentially the outcome of his
age, the dramatist of drawing-room life, whose genius enabled him to web
the foibles of the salon with elegant phraseology, and scenic effect
with admirable poetic expression; and the contrast between his lofty and
conscientious work and the puerilities and license of the Spanish and
Italian models was as marked as it was readily recognized.

Yet it was no easy matter to acclimatize in France even the high style
of comedy introduced by Moliere, and he had to inter-mix it with a good
many farces to make it go down. For twelve long years, leading the life
of a strolling player, Moliere observed and studied character; and when
at last he thought himself safe from opposition, under the powerful
patronage of Louis XIV, the Church, the University, the Sorbonne, and
the bigotry of the statesmen--once more united as in the age of Francis
I--conspired to cast stumbling-blocks in the way of literary freedom. It
was the authorities of the Church which, shocked and jealous at the
enthusiasm which greeted the appearance of _Tartuffe_, brought the veto
of the King to bear against the company of the Palais Royal; and though
Moliere believed that his private intercession had obtained the removal
of this veto, his enemies were bold and powerful enough during the
absence of Louis, on the further representation of the play, to prevent
its production a second time. Moliere was able to cope with his
adversaries; yet it is a noteworthy fact that the decree of
excommunication passed against comedians in France was not absolutely
rescinded until the present century.

We do not forget that Corneille wrote comedies before Moliere; and
indeed there is no doubt that the younger of the two dramatists owed
something, even in comedy, to the older. Moliere began