the time a stock one both in name and type. Scarron's other chief pieces were _Don Japhet d'Armenie_, _L'Heritier ridicule_, _La Precaution inutile_. It was in the _Menteur_ of Corneille that Moliere himself considered that true comedy had been first reached, and it was this play which set him on the track. But French comedy of the seventeenth century, before Moliere, is one of the subjects which have hardly any but a historical and antiquarian interest. Although far less artificial than contemporary tragedy, it is inferior as literature. It was attempted by writers of less power, and it is disfigured by too frequent coarseness of language and incident. It was on the whole the lowest of literary styles during the first half of the century. With Moliere it became at one bound the highest. [Sidenote: Moliere.] Jean Baptiste Poquelin[241], afterwards called Moliere, was born at Paris, probably in January 1622, in the Rue St. Honore. The Poquelin family seem to have come from Beauvais. Some hypotheses as to a Scotch origin have been disproved. Moliere's father was an upholsterer, holding an appointment in the royal household, and of some wealth and position. Moliere himself had every advantage of education, being at school at the famous Jesuit College de Clermont, and afterwards studying philosophy (under Gassendi) and law. He was, according to some accounts, actually called to the bar. At his majority he seems to have received a considerable share of his mother's fortune, and thus to have become independent. He joined some other young men of fair position in establishing a theatrical company called _L'Illustre Theatre_, which, however, failed with heavy loss to him, notwithstanding the assistance of a family of professional actors and actresses, one of whom, Madeleine Bejart, figures prominently in his private history. He was not to be thus disgusted with his profession. In 1646 he set out on a strolling tour through the provinces, and was absent from the capital for nearly thirteen years. The notices of this interesting part of his career which exist are unfortunately few, and, like many other points connected with it, have given rise to much controversy. It is sufficient to say that he returned to Paris in 1658, and on the 24th of October performed with his troupe before the court. He had long been a dramatist as well as an actor, and had written besides minor pieces, most of which are lost, the _Etourdi_ and the _Depit Amoureux_. Moliere soon acquired the favour of the king, and the _Precieuses Ridicules_, the first of his really great works, gained for him that of the public. In 1662 he married Armande Bejart, the younger sister of Madeleine--a marriage which brought him great unhappiness, though it was probably not without influence on some of his finest work. The king was godfather to the first child of the marriage, and Moliere was a prosperous man. He became valet-de-chambre