domestic, by the name of La Forêt; on whose unsophisticated judgment he
greatly relied. On one occasion when he attempted to impose upon her the
production of a brother author, she plainly told him that he had never
written it. Sir Walter Scott may have had this habit of Molière's in his
mind, when he introduced a similar expedient into his "Chronicles of the
Canongate." For the same reason, our poet used to request the comedians
to bring their children with them, when he recited to them a new play.
The peculiar advantage of this humble criticism, in dramatic
compositions, is obvious. Alfieri himself, as he informs us, did not
disdain to resort to it.

Molière was naturally of a reserved and taciturn temper; insomuch that
his friend Boileau used to call him the _Contemplateur_. Strangers who
had expected to recognise in his conversation the sallies of wit which
distinguished his dramas, went away disappointed. The same thing is
related of La Fontaine. The truth is, that Molière went into society as a
spectator, not as an actor; he found there the studies for the
characters, which he was to transport upon the stage; and he occupied
himself with observing them. The dreamer, La Fontaine, lived too in a
world of his own creation. His friend, Madame de la Sablière, paid to him
this untranslateable compliment; "En vérité, mon cher La Fontaine, vous
seriez bien bête, si vous n'aviez pas tant d'esprit." These unseasonable
reveries brought him, it may be imagined, into many whimsical adventures.
The great Corneille, too, was distinguished by the same apathy. A
gentleman dined at the same table with him for six months, without
suspecting the author of the "Cid."

Molière enjoyed the closest intimacy with the great Condé, the most
distinguished ornament of the court of Louis the Fourteenth; to such an
extent indeed, that the latter directed, that the poet should never be