despite his subservience to Scaliger, he is not afraid to express his independence of the ancients. We are not, he says, entirely bound to their laws, especially in the number of actors on the stage, which according to classic usage never exceeded three; for nowadays, notwithstanding the counsels of Aristotle and Horace, an audience has not the patience to be satisfied with only two or three persons at one time. The history of the dramatic unities in France during the sixteenth century demands some attention. That they had considerable effect on the actual practice of dramatic composition from the very advent of the Pleiade is quite obvious; for in the first scene of the first French tragedy, the _Cleopatre_ of Jodelle (1552), there is an allusion to the unity of time, which Corneille was afterward to call the _regle des regles_:-- "Avant que ce soleil, qui vient ores de naitre, Ayant trace son jour chez sa tante se plonge, Cleopatre mourra!" In 1553 Mellin de Saint-Gelais translated Trissino's _Sofonisba_ into French, and the influence of the Italian drama became fixed in France. But the first distinct formulation of the unities is to be found in Jean de la Taille's _Art de Tragedie_ (1572). His statement of the unity is explicit, "Il faut toujours representer l'histoire ou le jeu en un meme jour, en un meme temps, et en un meme lieu."[366] Jean de la Taille was indebted for this to Castelvetro, who two years before had stated them thus, "La mutatione tragica non puo tirar con esso seco se non una giornata e un luogo."[367] The unity of time was adopted by Ronsard about this same time in the following words:-- "Tragedy and comedy are circumscribed and limited to a short space of time, that is, to one whole day. The most excellent masters of this craft commence their works from one midnight to another, and not from sunrise to sunset, in order to have greater compass and length of time. On the other hand, the heroic poem, which is entirely of a martial character (_tout guerrier_), comprehends only the actions of one whole year."[368] This passage is without doubt borrowed from Minturno (1564):-- "Whoever regards well the works of the most admired ancient authors will find that the materials of scenic poetry terminate in one day, or do not pass beyond the space of two days; just as the action of the epic poem, however great and however long it may be, does not occupy more than one year."[369]