celebrated Baron, the best of
the succeeding. He played all the range of his own characters, from
_Alceste_ to _Sganarelle_; though he seems to have been peculiarly fitted
for broad comedy.

He produced all his pieces, amounting to thirty, in the short space of
fifteen years. He was in the habit of reading these to an old female
domestic, by the name of La Foret; on whose unsophisticated judgment he
greatly relied. On one occasion when he attempted to impose upon her the
production of a brother author, she plainly told him that he had never
written it. Sir Walter Scott may have had this habit of Moliere's in his
mind, when he introduced a similar expedient into his "Chronicles of the
Canongate." For the same reason, our poet used to request the comedians
to bring their children with them, when he recited to them a new play.
The peculiar advantage of this humble criticism, in dramatic
compositions, is obvious. Alfieri himself, as he informs us, did not
disdain to resort to it.

Moliere was naturally of a reserved and taciturn temper; insomuch that
his friend Boileau used to call him the _Contemplateur_. Strangers who
had expected to recognise in his conversation the sallies of wit which
distinguished his dramas, went away disappointed. The same thing is
related of La Fontaine. The truth is, that Moliere went into society as a
spectator, not as an actor; he found there the studies for the
characters, which he was to transport upon the stage; and he occupied
himself with observing them. The dreamer, La Fontaine, lived too in a
world of his own creation. His friend, Madame de la Sabliere, paid to him
this untranslateable compliment; "En verite, mon cher La Fontaine, vous
seriez bien bete, si vous n'aviez pas tant d'esprit." These unseasonable
reveries brought him, it may be imagined, into many whimsical adventures.
The great Corneille, too, was distinguished by the same apathy. A
gentleman dined at the same table with him for six months, without
suspecting the author of the "Cid."

Moliere enjoyed the closest intimacy with the great Conde, the most
distinguished ornament of the court of Louis the Fourteenth; to such an
extent indeed, that the latter directed, that the poet should never be
refused admission to him, at whatever hour he might choose to pay his
visit. His regard for his friend was testified by his remark, rather more
candid than courteous, to an Abbe of his acquaintance, who had brought
him an epitaph, of hi