Man must everywhere preserve his dignity : in the
presence of nature, of the woman he loves, and whom
he will address as " Madame," and in the presence of
God Himself. The best minds acquire thus something
chastened and austere which greatly surprises the
strangers who visit France at that time. People who
want to fritter away their life in amusements go now

1 " L'inclination a faire dcs vers que Yotre Altesse avoit pendant
son mal me fait souvenir de Socrate, que Platon dit avoir eu une
pareille envie pendant qu'il etoit en prison. Et je croy que cette
humcur de faire des vers vient d'une forte agitation des esprits
animaux qui pourroit entiercment troubler l'imagination de ceux
qui n'ont pas le cerveau bien rassis, mais qui ne fait qu'echauffer un
pcu plus les fermes et les disposer a la poc'sie." He then tries to
console her for "la funeste conclusion des tragedies d'Anglcterre,'
the late tragic events in England. To Madame Elisabeth, Princesse
Palatine, " Lcttrcs de M. Descartes, ou sont trainees plusieurs
belles questions," Paris, 1667, 3 vols., 4В°, vol. i., p. 83.


to London, to the Court of the " Merry Monarch," as
Gramont does ; Hugues de Lionne, the foreign minister
of Louis, sends his son there for la " petite Genins " to
sharpen his wit and rub off his shyness. '

Meanwhile Racine and Boileau, " after thirty-five
years of intimacy," address each other in their private
correspondence as " Monsieur," or at most " Mon cher
Monsieur." 2 Port-Royal fulminates against Racine
himself, and condemns the entire stage : " A theatrical
poet is a public poisoner. . . .