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Racine was quite conscious of his great superiority over Euripides; but he praised the Greek poet in order to humiliate Perrault. Molière, in his good pieces, is as superior to the pure but cold Terence, and to the droll Aristophanes, as to Dancourt the buffoon.
Le Mechant, by GRESSET, is a masterpiece in point of style, and La Metromanie, by PIRON, the best of French comedies, next to those of MOLIERE and REGNARD. Then come the works of LA CHAUSSEE, who is the father of the drame, and whose pieces are no longer represented, though he has composed several, such as La Gouvernante, L'Ecole des Meres, Le Prejuge a la Mode, which, notwithstanding, their whining style, are not destitute of merit, and those of DANCOURT, who has written several little comedies, of a very lively cast, which are still played, and those of MARIVAUX, whose old metaphysical jargon still pleases such persons as have their head full of love.
Mme. de Tencin exerted an immense influence upon the men of her circle, especially socially; for example, she married the wealthy M. de La Popelinière to Mlle. Dancourt. She was one of the few really consummate diplomats; later on, she became less associated with intrigues, and gave lessons in current diplomacy, with which she was perfectly familiar.
But in so far as Comedy is concerned, this deadening corruption is by no means invariably entertaining; and in many pieces, in which fools of quality give the tone, for example in the Chevalier a la mode de Dancourt, the picture of complete moral dissoluteness which, although true, is nevertheless both unpoetical and unnatural, is productive not merely of ennui, but of the most decided repugnance and disgust.
'Now mind, Dancourt, said one of those grands seigneurs to the leading actor of the day, 'if you're more amusing than I am at dinner to-night, je te donnerai cent coups de bâtons. It was dangerous enough to show one's wits at all in the company of such privileged persons, but to do so at their expense ! A few days later Voltaire and the Chevalier met again, at the Comédie, in Adrienne Lecouvreur's dressing-room.
Come away from the Brasserie des Sirènes of Mademoiselle Marthe in the Faubourg Poissonnière, from the Rue Dancourt, from the Moulin Rose in the Mazagran from all such undiluted cellars of vicious prostitution if these be Paris, then West Twenty-eighth Street in New York. Look you, romance seeker, rather into the places of Montépin and Eugène Sue. The moon is down.
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