rity of thought equal to what is found in the best satires of Boileau. It is the very didactic tone of this comedy, indeed, which, combined with its want of eager, animating interest, made it less popular on its representation than some of his inferior pieces. A circumstance which occurred on the first night of its performance may be worth noticing. In the second scene of the first act, a man of fashion, it is well known, is represented as soliciting the candid opinion of Alceste on a sonnet of his own enditing, though he flies into a passion with him, five minutes after, for pronouncing an unfavourable judgment. This sonnet was so artfully constructed by Molière, with those dazzling epigrammatic points most captivating to common ears, that the gratified audience were loud in their approbation of what they supposed intended in good faith by the author. How great was their mortification, then, when they heard Alceste condemn the whole as puerile, and fairly expose the false principles on which it had been constructed. Such a rebuke must have carried more weight with it than a volume of set dissertation on the principles of taste.
Rousseau has bitterly inveighed against Molière for exposing to ridicule the hero of his Misanthrope, a high-minded and estimable character, It was told to the Duc de Montausier, well known for his austere virtue, that he was intended as the original of the character, Much offended, he attended a representation of the piece, but, on returning, declared that "he dared hardly flatter himself the poet had
