diately
after its appearance the _Sophonisbe_ of Jean de Mairet was given,
and the classical tragedy of France was inaugurated on a popular stage.
In the preface to his pastoral tragi-comedy _Sylvanire_, Mairet in
1631 formulated the doctrine of the unities. The adhesion of Richelieu
and the advocacy of Chapelain insured their triumph. The "rules" came
to be regarded as the laws of a literary species.

The influence of the Spanish drama, seen in the writings of Rotrou
and others, might be supposed to make for freedom. It encouraged
romantic inventions and ambitious extravagances of style. Much that
is rude and unformed is united with a curiosity for points and laboured
ingenuity in the dramatic work of Scudery, Du Ryer, Tristan l'Hermite.
A greater dramatist than these showed how Spanish romance could
coalesce with French tragedy in a drama which marks an epoch--the
_Cid_; and the _Cid_, calling forth the judgment of the Academy,
served to establish the supremacy of the so-called rules of Aristotle.

PIERRE CORNEILLE, son of a legal official, was born at Rouen in 1606.
His high promise as a pupil of the Jesuits was not confirmed when
he attempted to practise at the bar; he was retiring, and spoke with
difficulty. At twenty-three his first dramatic piece, _Melite_, a
comedy, suggested, it is told, by an adventure of his youth, was given
with applause in Paris; it glitters with points, and is of a
complicated intrigue, but to contemporaries the plot appeared less
entangled and the style more natural than they seem to modern readers.
The tragi-comedy, _Clitandre_, which followed (1632), was a romantic
drama, crowded with extravagant incidents, after the manner of Hardy.
In _La Veuve_ he returned to the style of _Melite_, but with less
artificial brilliance and more real vivacity; it was published with
laudatory verses prefixed, in one of which Scudery bids the stars
retire for the sun has risen. The scene is laid in Paris, and some
presentation of contemporary manners is made in _La Galerie du Palais_
and _La Place Royale_. It was something to replace the nurse of elder
comedy by the soubrette. The attention of Richelieu was attracted
to the new dramatic author; he was numbered among the five _garcons
poetes_ who worked upon the dramatic plans of the Cardinal; but he
displeased his patron by his imaginative independence. Providing
himself with a convenient excuse, Corneille retired to Rouen.

These early works were vent