alone; it was crutched by imitation, and it
often deigned to plough with another's heifer. He copied whole scenes from
Italian comedies and plots from Italian novelists: his sole merit was
their improvement. The great comic satirist, who hereafter was to people
the stage with a dramatic crowd who were to live on to posterity, had not
yet struck at that secret vein of originality--the fairy treasure which
one day was to cast out such a prodigality of invention. His two first
comedies, _L'Etourdi_ and _Le Depit Amoureux_, which he had only ventured
to bring out in a provincial theatre, were grafted on Italian and Spanish
comedy. Nothing more original offered to his imagination than the Roman,
the Italian, and the Spanish drama; the cunning adroit slave of Terence;
the tricking, bustling _Gracioso_ of modern Spain; old fathers, the dupes
of some scapegrace, or of their own senile follies, with lovers sighing at
cross-purposes. The germ of his future powers may, indeed, be discovered
in these two comedies, for insensibly to himself he had fallen into some
scenes of natural simplicity. In _L'Etourdi,_ Mascarille, "le roi des
serviteurs," which Moliere himself admirably personated, is one of those
defunct characters of the Italian comedy no longer existing in society;
yet, like our Touchstone, but infinitely richer, this new ideal personage
still delights by the fertility of his expedients and his perpetual and
vigorous gaiety. In _Le Depit Amoureux_ is the exquisite scene of the
quarrel and reconciliation of the lovers. In this fine scene, though
perhaps but an amplification of the well-known ode of Horace, _Donec
gratus eram tibi_, Moliere consulted his own feelings, and betrayed his
future genius.

It was after an interval of three or four years that the provincial
celebrity of these comedies obtained a representation at Paris; their
success was decisive. This was an evidence of public favour which did
not accompany Moliere's more finished productions, which were so far
unfortunate that they were more intelligible to the few; in fact, the
first comedies of Moliere were not written above the popular taste; the
spirit of true comedy, in a profound knowledge of the heart of man, and in
the delicate discriminations of individual character, was yet unknown.
Moliere was satisfied to excel his predecessors, but he had not yet
learned his art.

The rising poet was now earnestly sought after; a more extended circle of
society now