ed these
lines, taken from the tragedy of '_Alcyonnee_.' It must, however, be
premised that the famous Duchess de Longueville had urged him to engage
in the wars of the Fronde. To her these lines were addressed:--

'Pour meriter son coeur, pour plaire a ses beaux yeux,
J'ai fait la guerre aux Rois, je l'aurais faite aux dieux.'

But now he had broken off his intimacy with the duchesse, and he
therefore parodied these lines:--

'Pour ce coeur inconstant, qu'enfin je connais mieux,
J'ai fait la guerre aux Rois, j'en ai perdue les yeux.'

Nevertheless, La Rochefoucault was still the gay, charming, witty host
and courtier. Racine composed, in 1660, his '_Nymphe de Seine_,' in
honour of the marriage of Louis XIV., and was then brought into notice
of those whose notice was no empty compliment, such as, in our day,
illustrious dukes pay to more illustrious authors, by asking them to be
jumbled in a crowd at a time when the rooks are beginning to caw. We
catch, as they may, the shadow of a dissolving water-ice, or see the
exit of an unattainable tray of negus. No; in the days of Racine, as in
those of Halifax and Swift in England, solid fruits grew out of fulsome
praise; and Colbert, then minister, settled a pension of six hundred
livres, as francs were called in those days (twenty-four pounds), on the
poet. And with this the former pupil of Port Royal was fain to be
content. Still he was so poor that he _almost_ went into the church, an
uncle offering to resign him a priory of his order if he would become a
regular. He was a candidate for orders, and wore a sacerdotal dress when
he wrote the tragedy of 'Theagenes,' and that of the 'Freres Ennemis,'
the subject of which was given him by Moliere.

He continued, in spite of a quarrel with the saints of Port Royal, to
produce noble dramas from time to time, but quitted theatrical pursuits
after bringing out (in 1677) 'Phedre,' that _chef-d'oeuvre_ not only
of its author, but, as a performance, of the unhappy but gifted Rachel.
Corneille was old, and Paris looked to Racine to supply his place, yet
he left the theatrical world for ever. Racine had been brought up with
deep religious convictions; they could not, however, preserve him from a
mad, unlawful attachment. He loved the actress Champmesle: but
repentance came. He resolved not only to write no more plays, but to do
penance for those already given to the world. He was on the eve of
becoming, in his penit