h nor
foreign, nor ancient, nor modern. In this abstract world the address
is always "you"(as opposed to the familiar thou),[3230] "Seigneur" and
"Madame," the noble style always clothing the most different characters
in the same dress. When Corneille and Racine, through the stateliness
and elegance of their verse, afford us a glimpse of contemporary figures
they do it unconsciously, imagining that they are portraying man in
himself; and, if we of the present time recognize in their pieces
either the gentleman, the duelists, the bullies, the politicians or
the heroines of the Fronde, or the courtiers, princes and bishops, the
ladies and gentlemen in waiting of the regular monarchy, it is because
they have inadvertently dipped their brush in their own experience, some
of its color having fallen accidentally on the bare ideal outline which
they wished to trace. We have simply a contour, a general sketch, filled
up with the harmonious gray tone of correct diction.--Even in comedy,
necessarily employing current habits, even with Moliere, so frank and
so bold, the model is unfinished, all individual peculiarities being
suppressed, the face becoming for a moment a theatrical mask, and
the personage, especially when talking in verse, sometimes losing
its animation in becoming the mouth-piece for a monologue or a
dissertation.[3231] The stamp of rank, condition or fortune, whether
gentleman or bourgeois, provincial or Parisian, is frequently
overlooked.[3232] We are rarely made to appreciate physical externals,
as in Shakespeare, the temperament, the state of the nervous system,
the bluff or drawling tone, the impulsive or restrained action, the
emaciation or obesity of a character.[3233] Frequently no trouble is
taken to find a suitable name, this being either Chrysale, Orgon, Damis,
Dorante, or Valere. The name designates only a simple quality, that of
a father, a youth, a valet, a grumbler, a gallant, and, like an ordinary
cloak, fitting indifferently all forms alike, as it passes from
the wardrobe of Moliere to that of Regnard, Destouche, Lesage or
Marivaux.[3234] The character lacks the personal badge, the unique,
authentic appellation serving as the primary stamp of an individual. All
these details and circumstances, all these aids and accompaniments of
a man, remain outside of the classic theory. To secure the admission
of some of them required the genius of Moliere, the fullness of his
conception, the wealth of his obser