_Mais, ô Dieux! ce moment que je vous ai quittée_ _D'un trouble bien plus grand a mon âme agitée;_ _Et ces soins importans qui m'arrachaient de vous,_ _Contre ma grandeur même allumaient mon courroux;_ _Je lui voulais du mal de m'être si contraire;_ _Mais je lui pardonnais, au simple souvenir_ _Du bonheur qu'à ma flamme elle fait obtenir._ _C'est elle, dont je tiens cette haute espérance,_ _Qui flatte mes désirs d'une illustre apparence...._ _C'était, pour acquérir un droit si précieux;_ _Que combattait partout mon bras ambitieux;_ _Et dans Pharsale même il a tiré l'épée_ _Plus pour le conserver que pour vaincre Pompée._ --Act iv, sc. 3. But, O the moment that I quitted you, A greater trouble came upon my soul; And those important cares that snatched me from you Against my very greatness moved my ire; I hated it for thwarting my desires.... But I have pardoned it--remembering how At last it crowns my passion with success: To it I owe the lofty hope which now Flatters my view with an illustrious prospect. 'Twas but to gain this dearest privilege, That my ambitious arm was raised in battle; Nor did it at Pharsalia draw the sword, So much to conquer Pompey, as to keep This glorious hope. Here, then, we have Cæsar hating his greatness for having taken him away a little while from Cleopatra; but forgiving his greatness when he remembers that this greatness has procured him the success of his passion. He has the lofty hope of an illustrious probability; and it was only to acquire the dear privilege of this illustrious probability, that his ambitious arm fought the battle of Pharsalia. It is said that this sort of wit, which it must be confessed is no other than nonsense, was then the wit of the age. It is an intolerable abuse, which Molière proscribed in his "_Précieuses Ridicules_." It was of these defects, too frequent in Corneille, that La Bruyère said: "I thought, in my early youth, that these passages were clear and intelligible, to the actors, to the pit, and to the boxes; that their authors themselves understood them, and that I was wrong in not understanding them: I am undeceived." SECTION V.