Moliere, popular though he was, had nevertheless to
struggle in the same way against literary salons, more
exacting in their requirements than Boileau himself ;
wits vied with each other in severity. The more severe
they were, the cleverer they thought themselves ; so
that a motley crew, in silks and laces, the Marquis
Ignorance and Countess Prejudice, met at the first
performances of his plays, clamouring for rules, Greek
precepts, and Latin examples. The commander com-
plained of the liberties taken ; the viscount declared he
was shocked, and made a public exit after the second
act : —

" L'ignorance ct l'crreur, a scs naissantes pieces,
En habits de marquis, en robes de comtcsscs,
Venaient pour diffamcr son chef-d'eeuvre nouveau . . .
Le commandeur voulait la scene plus exacte,
Le vicomte indigne sortait an second acte. . . ."

But what was the ideal of Boileau, the author of those
courageous lines ? The ideal of his time and of all
France : unity, clearness, regularity, selection, logic ;
all of them qualities rare and noble, placed above all
others in French estimation, but which, carried to
excess, like all qualities, even the best in the world, are
not without serious inconveniences and drawbacks.
One of those inconveniences consists in the difficulty of


reconciling so studied an art with nature : for the
rights of nature cannot be neglected ; no one dreams
of contesting them, and Boileau less than anv one ; we
must learn from nature only