and well-sustained and
sprightly conversations.

And how remarkable and delicate is the nuance between his different
characters, though they may represent the same profession or an
identical personage. None of his doctors are alike; his male and female
scholars are all dissimilar. Mascarille is not Gros-Rene, Scapin is not
Sbrigani, Don Juan is not Dorante, Alceste is not Philinte, Isabelle is
not Agnes, Sganarelle is not always the same, Ariste is not Beralde nor
Chrysalde; while even his servants, Nicole, Dorine, Martine, Marotte,
Toinette, Claudine, and Lisette; his boobies, such as Alain and Lubin,
and his intriguants in petticoats, such as Nerine, Lucette, Frosine,
vary in character, expression, and conduct. They exemplify the saying,
"Like master, like man."

A remarkable characteristic of Moliere is that he does not exaggerate;
his fools are never overwitty, his buffoons too grotesque, his men of
wit too anxious to display their smartness, nor his fine gentlemen too
fond of immodest and ribald talk. His satire is always kept within
bounds, his repartees are never out of place, his plots are but seldom
intricate, and the moral of his plays is not obtruded, but follows as a
natural consequence of the whole. He rarely rises to those lofty realms
of poetry where Shakespeare so often soars, for he wrote not idealistic,
but character, comedies; which is, perhaps, the reason that some of his
would-be admirers consider him rather commonplace. His claim to
distinction is based only on strong common-sense, good manners, sound
morality, real wit, true humor, a great, facile, and accurate command of
language, and a photographic delineation of nature.

It cannot be denied that there is little action in his plays, but there
is a great deal of natural conversation; his personages show that he was
a most attentive observer of men, even at court, where a certain varnish
of overrefinement conceals nearly all individual features. He generally
makes vice appear in its most ridiculous aspect, in order to let his
audience laugh and despise it; his aim is to correct the follies of the
age by exposing them to ridicule.

CROMWELL'S RULE IN ENGLAND

THE RESTORATION

A.D. 1660

THOMAS CARLYLE JOHN R. GREEN SAMUEL PEPYS

Brief as was the duration of the Protectorate under Oliver
Cromwell, it was one of the most extraordinary periods in
English history. It is now commonly admitted that Cromwell was