J'ai déjà vu beaucoup en ce moment heureux, Je t'ai vu magnanime, affable, généreux, Et ce qu'on voit à peine après dix ans d'excuses, Je t'ai vu tout à coup libéral pour les Muses.[41] This, after all, is little more than a receipt expressed in Spanish style. None the less, the poet promises the financier that he will treat the subject which the latter indicates. Foucquet gave him three subjects to choose from. _Œdipe_ was one of the three; it was the one which Corneille chose. He treated it, and we may say that he treated it gallantly. He endowed his heroes with wonderfully polite manners. It is charming to hear Theseus, Prince of Athens, saying to the beautiful Dirce: Quelque ravage affreux qu'étale ici la peste, L'absence aux vrais amants est encor plus funeste. Old Corneille, delighted with himself for having conceived such beautiful things, flattered himself that _Œdipe_ was his masterpiece, although it had taken him only two months to write it; he had made haste in order to please the Superintendent. This work, which was in the fashion and was, after all, from the pen of the great Corneille, was received with favour. The gazeteer, Loret, bears witness to this in the execrable verses of a poet who has to write so much a week: Monsieur de Corneille l'aîné, Depuis peu de temps a donné A ceux de l'hôtel de Bourgogne[42] Son dernier ouvrage ou besogne, Ouvrage grand et signalé, Qui _l'Œdipe_ est intitulé, Ouvrage, dis-je, dramatique, Mais si tendre et si pathétique, Que, sans se sentir émouvoir, On ne peut l'entendre ou le voir. Jamais pièce de cette sorte N'eut l'élocution si forte; Jamais, dit-on, dans l'univers, On n'entendit de si beaux vers. We mentioned that Foucquet, when proposing to Corneille the subject of _Œdipe,_ suggested two other subjects, one of which was _Camma._ The third we do not know.[43] Camma, who slays her husband's murderer upon the altar to which he has led her, is no commonplace heroine. Corneille was a good kinsman; he passed on _Camma_ to his brother Thomas, who made a pretty dull tragedy out of it; such was the custom of this excellent person. Thomas also participated in the Superintendent's generosity. He dedicated to Foucquet his tragedy _La Mort de Commode,_ in return for the "generous marks of esteem" and benefits which he had received. He said, with charming politeness, "I wished to offer myself, and you have singled me out."