Page:An Essay of Dramatic Poesy.djvu/155

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NOTES.
135

Terence, where the same change takes place in the character of Demea.' (Dyce.)

53. 19. Velleius Paterculus, i. 17. (Malone.)

54. 17. The Menteur of Corneille (see Geruzez, Lit. Française, ii. 90) was founded on one of the chefs d'œuvre of the Spanish stage, the Truth itself Suspected of Ruiz de Alarcon. It appeared in 1642.

23. It seems impossible to compare such plays as the Menteur and the Fox of Jonson. The latter is real life, though in a coarse form; the other, with its polished rhymes and regular movement, is a fine work of art, but has little to do with life. Each has its merits, but they are referable to no common standard.

55. 5. Cardinal Richelieu died in 1642. (Malone.)

9. The Cornelia and Double Marriage of Beaumont and Fletcher, which are founded on two of Cervantes' novels, are cases in point.

11. The Adventures of Five Hours, written by Sir Samuel Tuke, and printed in 1663. Diego is a character in it. (Malone.)

56. 1. 6. 'Contraries are the two most opposite qualities of the same class of subjects, e.g. black and white, as colours of bodies; virtue and vice, as habits of the soul.' (Mansel's Artis Logicae Rudimenta, 19.)

57. 4. The doctrine of the primum mobile belongs to the Ptolemaic astronomy, which made the sun and stars revolve round the earth.

58. 12. Cinna, or the Clemency of Augustus, produced in 1639, is generally allowed to be Corneille's finest tragedy. On the Pompey, see the note on p. 129. The Polyeuctus, a story of Christian martyrdom referring to the persecution of the Emperor Decius, appeared in 1640. The author's 'Examen' on this play is of great interest.

60. 10. The Maid's Tragedy is by Beaumont and Fletcher; the other plays here mentioned, by Ben Jonson.

61. 16. The Andromède, from the gorgeousness of its mythological mise-en-scène, bore some resemblance to the masque, while from the use of recitative and the introduction of many