This versatility and felicity of composition made everything with Moliere a subject for comedy.  He invented two novelties, such as the stage had never before witnessed.  Instead of a grave defence from the malice of his critics, and the flying gossip of the court circle, Moliere found out the art of congregating the public to The Quarrels of Authors.  He dramatised his critics.  In a comedy without a plot, and in scenes which seemed rather spoken than written, and with characters more real than personated, he displayed his genius by collecting whatever had been alleged to depreciate it; and La Critique de L’Ecole des Femmes is still a delightful production.  This singular drama resembles the sketch-book of an artist, the croquis of portraits—­the loose hints of thoughts, many of which we discover were more fully delineated in his subsequent pieces.  With the same rapid conception he laid hold of his embarrassments to furnish dramatic novelties as expeditiously as the king required.  Louis XIV. was himself no indifferent critic, and more than once suggested an incident or a character to his favourite poet.  In L’Impromptu de Versailles, Moliere appears in his own person, and in the midst of his whole company, with all the irritable impatience of a manager who had no piece ready.  Amidst this green-room bustle Moliere is advising, reprimanding, and imploring, his “ladies and gentlemen.”  The characters in this piece are, in fact, the actors themselves, who appear under their own names; and Moliere himself reveals many fine touches of his own poetical character, as well as his managerial.  The personal pleasantries on his own performers, and the hints for plots, and the sketches of character which the poet incidentally throws out, form a perfect dramatic novelty.  Some of these he himself subsequently adopted, and others have been followed up by some dramatists without rivalling Moliere.  The Figaro of Beaumarchais is a descendant of the Mascarille of Moliere; but the glory of rivalling Moliere was reserved for our own stage.  Sheridan’s Critic, or a Tragedy Rehearsed, is a congenial dramatic satire with these two pieces of Moliere.

The genius of Moliere had now stepped out of the restricted limits of the old comedy; he now looked on the moving world with other eyes, and he pursued the ridiculous in society.  These fresher studies were going on at all hours, and every object was contemplated with a view to comedy.  His most vital characters have been traced to living originals, and some of his most ludicrous scenes had occurred in reality before they delighted the audience.  Monsieur Jourdain had expressed his astonishment, “qu’il faisait de la prose,” in the Count de Soissons, one of the uneducated noblemen devoted to the chase.  The memorable scene between Trissotin and Vadius, their mutual compliments terminating in their mutual contempt, had been rehearsed by their respective authors—­the