dramatist who approaches comedy from the side of Moliere is but too apt to forget the fact in his anxiety to enforce his moral and deepen the strokes of his general type. FOOTNOTES: [233] Ed. Stengel. 5 vols. Marburg, 1884. Cf. Rigal, _Alexandre Hardy_. Paris, 1889. [234] This singular work has been published in vol. 8 of the _Ancien Theatre Francais_ in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne. It consists of two parts (or, as the author calls them, days), and fills some two hundred pages. The traditions of the classical drama are thrown to the winds in it, and the liberty of action, the abundance of personages, the bustle and liveliness of the presentation are almost equal to those of the contemporary English theatre. [235] Ed. Viollet-le-Duc. Also in a convenient selection of his best plays, by L. de Ronchaud. Paris, 1882. [236] It is pretty generally known that Richelieu himself (besides other dramatic work) composed the whole, or nearly the whole, of a play _Mirame_, which he had sumptuously performed, and which was fathered by Desmarest. It possessed no merit. [237] Ed. Marty-Laveaux. 12 vols. Paris, 1862-67. [238] Ed. Mesnard. 8 vols. Paris, 1867. [239] The work of (or attributed to) this singular and obscure person has been edited by M. G. Aventin in 2 vols, of the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne (Paris, 1858). The name was certainly assumed, and the date and history of the bearer are quite uncertain. The third decade of the seventeenth century seems to have been his most flourishing time. He was the most remarkable of a class of charlatans, others of whom bore the names of Gaultier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, etc., and the work which goes under his name is typical of a large mass of _facetiae_. It consists of dialogues between Tabarin and his master, of farcical adventures in which figure Rodomont (the typical hero of romance) and Isabelle (the typical heroine), etc., etc. [240] These will be found in the dramatic collection of the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne already cited, as well as other pieces, of which the most remarkable is the _Corrivaux_ of Troterel (1612). Saint-Evremond among his earlier works produced a _Comedie des Academistes_, satirising the then young Academy. [241] Ed. Moland. 7 vols. Paris, 1863. Ed. (in 'Grands Ecrivains' series) Despois, Regnier, and Mesnard. Paris (in progress). CHAPTER III. NOVELISTS. [Sidenote: D'Urfe.]