La Grande Mademoiselle owed much of her turn of mind to the dramatic plays that she had watched from infancy. I doubt if she was given any lessons in history, or that she had any lessons of the kind before she reached her twenty-fifth year, when she acquired a taste for reading. All that she knew of history had been gleaned by her from the tragedies that she had seen at the theatre, and as she was refractory to the sentiment of _Astrée_, it cannot be inferred that she had learned much from d'Urfé; so it may be said that Corneille was her teacher in all branches of learning, that no one of that time was in deeper debt to the influence that he exerted over minds, and that no one so plainly manifested his influence. From the education afforded by Corneille came good and evil mingled. As we follow the course of Mademoiselle's life we are forced to admit that however high and noble were the ideas sown broadcast by Corneille, they were not always devoid of inconveniences when they fell among people whose experimental knowledge and practicality were inferior to their susceptibility to impressions. In the years which followed the advent of the _Cid_ Corneille was the literary head of France; he had discovered the French scene through the influence of d'Urfé, but his power was his own, and it was an inherent power; he was the creator of a tendency. The unclean farce, which delighted the lockpickers and the gamblers of the Paris of those days, has no place here, because it has no place in literature. When "good company" invaded the paying theatres the farce followed the canaille and took its place upon the trestled stages of the Pont-Neuf. The farce played a part of its own, in a world unknown to Mademoiselle; but the pastoral demands our attention, not only because it was in high favour in Mademoiselle's society, but because Corneille exerted his influence against it. [Illustration: CORNEILLE FROM AN ENGRAVING OF THE PAINTING BY LEBRUN] In the pastoral, love took possession of the stage, as it had been announced to do, in the play which opened the way for its successors, Tasso's _Aminta_.[68] In the prologue the son of Venus appeared disguised as a shepherd, and declaimed, for the benefit of the other shepherds, a discourse which, little by little, became the programme of all imaginative literature: To-day these forests shall he heard speaking of love in a new way.... I will inspire gross hearts with noble sentiments; I will subdue their language and make soft their voices; for, wherever I may be, I still am Love; in shepherds as in heroes. I establish, if so it please me, equality in all conditions, no matter how unequal; and my supreme glory, and the miracle of all my power, is to change the rustic musettes into sounding lyres.