DRAWING CHARACTERS.
Reading edition
“Each cried, that is levell’d at me.”
Molière was accused of putting living characters into his exquisite comedies. The ridicules of society were then so graphic, the Hôtel Rambouillet, the Jesuits, and the Court, all furnished such abundant materials to truth and satire, that the temptation to give to fiction the interest of fact, must have been irresistible. “C’est une chose étrange qu’on imprime les gens malgré eux,”[20] observes the immortal author of the “Précieuses Ridicules,” in allusion to the accusations made against him. But Molière in drawing characters from the particular species and genus, avoided all personal allusion. Nobody’s history was told,—nobody’s secret was revealed; but his enemies made his fine delineations of life and character, a subject of misrepresentation and persecution, from which the power of the king only could protect him. It was Louis the XIVth, who sheltered him from the wrath of the Tartuffes, and supplied him, from his own observations, with some of the most striking characters in his works; for kings like to be amused, even at the expense of their dearest friends: and, provided their own characters, and conduct, and measures, are held sacred, for the rest, “Sauve qui peut.”
Party spirit, which, from a decree of imperial proscription, to a column in the lowest organ of purchaseable ribaldry, stops at no means of blackening its opponent, frequently avails itself of this instrument for bringing the self-love of the gullible to its side: and the legitimate satire on a prevailing vice or folly, is affixed to some particular individual, presumed to have been “put into the book” of the author, who is to be run down at the expence of truth, honesty, and honour. But between the ruffianism that attacks character for the gratifications of base, vindictive, and sordid passions, and that honest and courageous delineator of the peculiar vices or follies of the day, which comes under the head of what Molière calls “La Satire honnête et permise,” there is the same difference, as between the hired assassin who way-lays and murders for a stated price, and the gallant soldier, who goes forth in the broad day to combat the enemy of public safety and public rights.