ontending that a patient should not be said to die of a
fever or a consumption, but of four doctors and two apothecaries. The
farce enlarged the sphere of Moliere's enemies, but as the poet
suffered none of the faculty to prescribe for him, their resentment
was of the less consequence.

The "Misanthrope," accounted by the French critics the most correct of
Moliere's compositions, was the next vehicle of his satire against the
follies of the age. Except for the usual fault of his gratuitously
adopted coarseness, it is admirably imitated in the "Plain Dealer," of
Wycherly. Alceste is an upright and manly character, but rude and
impatient even of the ordinary civilities of life and the harmless
hypocrisies of complaisance, by which the ugliness of human nature is
in some degree disguised. He quarrels with his friend Philinte for
receiving the bow of a man he despises; and with his mistress for
enjoying a little harmless ridicule of her friend, when her back is
turned. He tells a conceited poet that he prefers the sense and
simplicity of an old ballad to the false wit of a modern sonnet--he
proves his judgment to be just--and receives a challenge from the poet
in reward of his criticism. Such a character, placed in opposition to
the false and fantastic affectations of the day, afforded a wide scope
for the satire of Moliere. The situation somewhat resembles that of
Eraste, in "Les Facheux." But the latter personage is only interrupted
by fools and impostors during a walk in the Tuileries, where he
expects to meet his mistress; the distress of Alceste lies deeper--he
is thwarted by pretenders and coxcombs in the paths of life itself,
and his peculiar temper renders him impatient of being pressed and
shouldered by them; so that, like an irritable man in a crowd, he
resents those inconveniences to which men of equanimity submit, not as
a matter of choice, indeed, but as a point of necessity. The greater
correctness of this piece may be owing to the lapse of nine months (an
unusual term of repose for the muse of Moliere) betwixt the appearance
of "L'Amour Medecin" and that of the "Misanthrope." Yet this
chef-d'oeuvre was at first coldly received by the Parisian audience,
and to render it more attractive, Moliere was compelled to attach to
its representation the lively farce of "Le Medecin malgre lui." In a
short time the merit of the "Misanthrope" became acknowledged by the
public, and even many of those critics who had hithert