The whole's arranged with so much care,
Art seems to copy nature there;
The beauteous structure fills the sight,
Not with surprise, but with delight.
The Temple was surrounded with a crowd of virtuosos, artists and connoisseurs of various kinds, who endeavored to enter, but did not succeed.
For criticism, severe and just,
Still stood before that shrine august,
Repelling all the efforts rude
Of Goths, who would in crowds intrude.
How many men of quality, how many persons in high vogue with the public, who dictate so imperiously to little clubs, are refused admittance into that Temple!
There the cabals of wit no more
Have the same power they had before;
When they could make an audience praise
Pradon's and Scudéri's[1] wretched lays,
And think their writings did excel
Those of Racine and great Corneille.
The obscure enemies of all-shining merit, those insects of society, which are taken notice of only because they bite, were repelled with equal rudeness. These would have envied the great Condé the glory he acquired at Rocroi, and Villars the reputation he gained at Denain, as much as they envied Corneille for having written "Polyeucte." They would have assassinated Lebrun for having painted the family of
- ↑ Scudéri was the declared enemy of Corneille. He had a party, which greatly preferred him to that father of the stage. He boasted that four doorkeepers were killed when one of his pieces were represented, and said he would never yield to Corneille till there were five doorkeepers killed at the representation of the Cid or the Horatii.
