_18th-Century Drama._--The results of the cultivation of dramatic poetry at this time were even less individually remarkable than those of the attention paid to poetry proper. Here again the astonishing power and literary aptitude of Voltaire gave value to his attempts in a style which, notwithstanding that it counts Racine among its practitioners, was none the less predestined to failure. Voltaire's own efforts in this kind are indisputably as successful as they could be. Foreigners usually prefer _Mahomet_ and _Zaire_ to _Bajazet_ and _Mithridate_, though there is no doubt that no work of Voltaire's comes up to _Polyeucte_ and _Rodogune_, as certainly no single passage in any of his plays can approach the best passages of _Cinna_ and _Les Horaces_. But the remaining tragic writers of the century, with the single exception of Crebillon _pere_, are scarcely third-rate. C. Jolyot de Crebillon (1674-1762) himself had genius, and there are to be found in his work evidences of a spirit which had seemed to die away with _Saint-Genest_, and was hardly to revive until _Hernani_. Of the imitators of Racine and Voltaire, La Motte in _Ines de Castro_ was not wholly unsuccessful. Francois Joseph de la Grange-Chancel (1677-1758) copied chiefly the worst side of the author of _Britannicus_, and Bernard Joseph Saurin (1706-1781) and Pierre-Laurent de Belloy (1727-1775) performed the same service for Voltaire. Le Mierre and La Harpe, mentioned and to be mentioned, were tragedians; but the _Iphigenie en Tauride_ of Guimond de la Touche (1725-1760) deserves more special mention than anything of theirs. There was an infinity of tragic writers and tragic plays in this century, but hardly any others of them even deserve mention. The muse of comedy was decidedly more happy in her devotees. Moliere was a far safer if a more difficult model than Racine, and the inexorable fashion which had bound down tragedy to a feeble imitation of Euripides did not similarly prescribe an undeviating adherence to Terence. Tragedy had never been, has scarcely been since, anything but an exotic in France; comedy was of the soil and native. Very early In the century Alain Rene le Sage (1668-1747), in the admirable comedy of _Turcaret_, produced a work not unworthy to stand by the side of all but his master's best. Philippe Destouches (1680-1754) was also a fertile comedy writer in the early years of the century, and in _Le Glorieux_ and _Le Philosophe marie_ achieved considerable success. As the age went on, comedy, always apt to lay hold of passing events, devoted itself to the great struggle between the Philosophes and their opponents. Curiously enough, the party which engrossed almost all the wit of France had the worst of it in this dramatic portion of the contest, if in no other. The _Mechant_ of Gresset and the _Metromanie_ of Alexis Piron (1689-1773) were far superior to anything produced on the other side, and the _Philosophes_