The history of French comedy is remarkably different from that of French tragedy. In the latter case a foreign model was followed almost slavishly; in the former the actual possessions of the language received grafts of foreign importation, and the result was one of the capital productions of European literature. Whether the popularity of the indigenous farce of itself saved France from falling into the same false groove with Italy it is not easy to say, but it is certain that at the time of the Renaissance there was some danger. At first it seemed as if Terence was to serve as a model for comedy just as Seneca served as a model for tragedy. The first comedy, _Eugene_, is strongly Terentian, though even here a greater freedom of movement, a stronger infusion of local colour is observable than in _Didon_ or _Cleopatre_. So, too, when the Italian Larivey adapted his remarkable comedies the vernacular savour became still stronger. Yet it was very long before genuine comedy was produced in France. The farces continued, and kinds of dramatic entertainment, lower even than the farce, such as those which survive in the work of the merry-andrew Tabarin[239], were relished. The Spanish comedy, with its strong spice of tragi-comedy, was imitated to a considerable extent. A few examples of the _Commedia erudita_, or Terentian play, continued to be produced at intervals; and the stock personages of the _Commedia dell'arte_, Harlequin, Scaramouch, etc., at one time invaded France, and, under cover of the comic opera and the _Foire_ pieces, made something of a lodgment. In the earlier years of the seventeenth century, moreover, a considerable number of fantastic experiments were tried. We have a _Comedie des Proverbes_, in which the action is altogether subordinate to the introduction of the greatest possible number of popular sayings; a _Comedie des Chansons_ spun out of a vast and precious collection of popular songs; a _Comedie des Comedies_, which is a cento made up of extracts from Balzac, the moralist and letter-writer; a _Comedie des Comediens_, in which the famous actors of the day are brought on the stage in their own persons[240], etc., etc. While French comedy was thus endeavouring to find its way in all manner of tentative and sometimes grotesque experiments, dramatists of talent occasionally struck, as if by accident, into some of the side paths of that way, and directed their successors into the way itself. The early comedies of Corneille have been spoken of; despite the improbability of their Spanish plots, they show a distinct feeling after real excellence. The eccentric Cyrano de Bergerac, especially in his _Pedant Joue_, furnished Moliere with hints, and displayed considerable comic power. Scarron, a not dissimilar person, whose _Roman Comique_ shows the interest he felt in the theatre, also wrote comedies, the chief of which were extremely popular, the character of Jodelet in the play of the same name (1645) becoming for