Corneille's dramatic career may be divided into four parts; the first reaching from _Melite_ to _L'Illusion Comique_; the second (that of his masterpieces), from the _Cid_ to _Rodogune_; the third, from _Theodore_ to _Pertharite_; the fourth, that of the decadence, from _Oedipe_ to _Surena_. The following is a list of the names and dates (these latter being sometimes doubtful and contentious) of his plays. _Melite_, 1629, a comedy improbable and confused in incident and overdone with verbal _pointes_, but much beyond anything previous to it. _Clitandre_, 1630, a tragedy in the taste of the time, one of the maddest of plays. _La Veuve_, 1634, a comedy, well written and lively. _La Galerie du Palais_ (same year), a capital comedy of its immature kind, bringing in the humours of contemporary Paris. _La Suivante_, a comedy (same year), in which the great character of the soubrette makes her first appearance. _La Place Royale_, a comedy, 1635, duller than the _Galerie du Palais_, which it in some respects resembles. _Medee_, a tragedy (same year), incomparably the best French tragedy up to its date. _L'Illusion Comique_, 1636, a tragi-comedy of the extremest Spanish type, complicated and improbable to a degree in its action, which turns on the motive of a play within a play, and produces, as the author himself remarks, a division into prologue (Act i), an imperfect comedy (Acts ii-iv), and a tragedy (Act v). _Le Cid_, 1636, the best-known if not the best of Corneille's plays, and, from the mere playwright's point of view, the most attractive. _Horace_, 1639, often, but improperly, called _Les Horaces_, in which the Cornelian method is seen complete. The final speech of Camille before her brother kills her was as a whole never exceeded by the author, and the 'qu'il mourut' of the elder Horace is equally characteristic. _Cinna_, 1639, the general favourite in France, but somewhat stilted and devoid of action to foreign taste. _Polyeucte_, 1640, the greatest of all Christian tragedies. _La Mort de Pompee_, 1641, full of stately verse, but heavy and somewhat grandiose. _Le Menteur_, 1642, a charming comedy, followed by a _Suite du Menteur_, 1643, not inferior, though the fickleness of public taste disapproved it. _Theodore_, 1645, a noble tragedy, which only failed because the prudery of theatrical precisians found fault with its theme--the subjection of a Christian virgin to the last and worst trial of her honour and faith. _Rodogune_, 1646, the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the style, displaying from beginning to end an astonishing power of moving admiration and terror. This play marks the climax of Corneille's faculty. In _Heraclius_, 1647, no real falling-off is visible; indeed, the character of Phocas stands almost alone on the French stage as a parallel in some sort to Iago. _Andromede_, 1650, introduced a considerable amount of spectacle and decoration, not unhappily. _Don Sanche d'Aragon_, 1651, _Nicomede_, 1652, and _Pertharite_, 1653 (each