ss of the
deliberate and minute manner in which he himself points that contrast,
and even now and then satirises the _Cyrus_ by name. The system of inset
_Histoires_,[254] beginning with the well-told if borrowed story of Don
Carlos of Aragon and his "Invisible Mistress," is, indeed, hardly a
contrast except in point of the respective lengths of the digressions,
nor does it seem to be meant as a parody. It has been said that this
"inset" system, whether borrowed from the episodes of the ancients or
descended from the constant divagations of the mediaeval romances, is
very old, and proved itself uncommonly tenacious of life. But the
difference between the opening of the two books can hardly have been
other than intentional on the part of the later writer; and it is a very
memorable one, showing nothing less than the difference between romance
and novel, between academic generalities and "realist" particularism,
and between not a few other pairs of opposites. It has been fully
allowed that the overture of the _Grand Cyrus_ is by no means devoid of
action, even of bustle, and that it is well done of its kind. But that
kind is strongly marked in the very fact that there is a sort of
faintness in it. The burning of Sinope, the distant vessel, the
street-fighting that follows, are what may be called "cartoonish"--large
washes of pale colour. The talk, such as there is, is stage-talk of the
pseudo-grand style. It is curious that Scarron himself speaks of the
_Cyrus_ as being the most "furnitured" romance, _le roman le plus
meuble_, that he knows. To a modern eye the interiors are anything but
distinct, despite the elaborate _ecphrases_, some of which have been
quoted.[255]

Now turn to the opening passage of the _Roman Comique_, which strikes
the new note most sharply. It is rather well known, probably even to
some who have not read the original or Tom Brown's congenial translation
of it; for it has been largely laid under contribution by the
innumerable writers about a much greater person than Scarron, Moliere.
The experiences of the _Illustre Theatre_ were a little later, and
apparently not so sordid as those of the company of which Scarron
constituted himself historiographer; but they cannot have been very
dissimilar in general kind, and many of the characteristics, such as the
assumption now of fantastic names, "Le Destin," "La Rancune," etc., now
of rococo-romantic ones, such as "Mademoiselle de l'Etoile," remained
long