Note 32 — CABINET CYCLOPÆDIA. (continued 2)

Bellerose (whose real name was Pierre Le Meslier) was the best tragic actor of the reign of Louis XIII.: he was the original Cinna of Corneille's play. He was elegant in manner, and his elocution was easy. Scarron accuses him of affectation: and we are told, in the Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, that a lady objected to M. de la Rochefoucauld, that he resembled Bellerose in the affectation of gentleness.