Ariosto, Shakespeare and Corneille

by Benedetto Croce

Corneille's keenest adversaries have always been compelled to recognise in him a residuum, which withstood their destructive criticism. Vauvenargues said that "he sometimes expressed himself with great energy and no one has more loftly traits, no one has left behind him the idea of a dialogue so closely compacted and so vehement, or has depicted with equal felicity the power and the inflexibility of the soul, which come to it from virtue. There are astonishing flashes that come forth even from the disputes and upon which I commented unfavourably, there are battles that really elevate the heart, and finally, although he frequently removes himself from nature, it must be confessed that he depicts her with great directness and vigour in many places, and only there is he to be admired." Jacobi, in an essay which is an indictment, was however, compelled to excogitate or to beg for the reason of such fame; he found himself obliged to praise the many vivacious scenes, the depth of discourse, the loftiness of expression, to be found scattered here and there in those tragedies. Although Schiller did not care for him at all, he made an exception for "the part that is properly speaking heroic," which was "felicitously treated," although he added that "even this vein, which is not rich in itself, was treated monotonously." Schlegel was struck with certain passages and with the style which is often powerful and concise and De Sanctis observed that Corneille was in his own field, when he portrayed greatness of soul, not in its gradations and struggles, but "as nature and habit, in the security of possession." A German philologist, after he has run down the tragedies of the "quadrilateral," judges Corneille to be "a jurist and a cold man of intellect, although full of nobility and dignity of soul, but without clearness as to his own aptitudes, and without original creative power." This writer declares that "nowhere in his works do we feel the breath of genius that laughs at all restraints," but he goes on to make exception for the splendour of his "language." It seems somewhat difficult to make an exception for the language, precisely when discussing the question of poetical genius!

NOTE. [Schiller, etc...] I draw attention to it in this note, because I have never seen it mentioned: it is to be found in the Charactere der vornehmsten Dichter aller Nationen.... von einer Gesellschaft von Gelehrten (Leipzig, 1796), Vol. V, part I, pp. 38-138.

We certainly find monotony present in the figures that he sets before us, repetitions of thoughts and of schemes, analogies in the matter of process. A concordantia corneliana, explicatory of this side of his genius could be constructed and perhaps the sole reason that this has not been done is because it would be too easy. Steinweg, whom we have quoted above, has provided a good instance of this. But even the monotony of Corneille must not be looked upon altogether as a proof of poverty, or a defect, but rather as an intrinsic characteristic of his austere inspiration, which was susceptible of assuming but few forms.

I cannot better close this discussion of Corneille than with the citation of a youthful page of Sainte-Beuve, which contains nothing but a fanciful comparison, but this comparison has much more to say to us, who have now completed the critical examination of his works, than Sainte-Beuve was himself able to say in his various critical writings relative to the poet, for he there shows himself to be at one moment inclined to be uncertain and to oscillate, at another inclined to yield to traditional judgments and conventional enthusiasms. This affords another proof, if such be necessary, that it is one thing to receive the sensible impression aroused by a poem and another to understand and to explain it. "Corneille"—wrote Sainte-Beuve,—"a pure genius, yet an incomplete one, gives me, with his qualities and his defects, the impression of those great trees, so naked, so gnarled, so sad and so monotonous as regards their trunk, and adorned with branches and dark green leaves only at their summits. They are strong, powerful, gigantic, having but little foliage; an abundant sap nourishes them; but you must not expect from them shelter, shade or flowers. They put forth their leaves late, lose them early and live a long while half dismantled. Even when their bald heads have abandoned their leaves to the winds of autumn, their vital nature still throws out here and there stray boughs and green shoots. When they are about to die, their groans and creakings are like that trunk, laden with arms, to which Lucan compared the great Pompey."

---

INDEX
Action, [226]; Shakespeare and, [200], [206].
Adonis, [192].
Aesthetic theory, [300].
Affinities, [112], [113], [114].
Alexandra, [20].
Alexandrines, [426].
Alidor, [387], [388], [403].
All's Well, [169].
Amaranthe, [387].
Angelica, [108], [168].
Anthony, [244], [249], [258].
Anthony and Cleopatra,[193], [242].
Ariosto, Lodovico, as poet of harmony, [45];
autobiography, [27]; character of his love, [52];
character of his poetry, [8], [9];
circumstances, character and associates, [18], [22];
comedies, [23]; comparisons with other poets, [95];
content, [13], [15]; epicity, [80]; eroticism, [26];
feeling toward the Estes, [60], [61];
harmony which he attains, [94]; heart of his heart, [29];
humanism, [37]; irony, [70], [75]; Italian poems, [25];
jealousy, [53]; Latin poems, [24], [26]; love of harmony, [48];
love of women as his single passion, [20]; minor works, [67];
naturalism, objectivism, [76], [78], [79]; need of love, [30];
negative qualities, [21]; octaves, [71], [82];
pains taken with Orlando Furioso,[30];
philosophy, [48], [65]; political sentiments, [59];
principal accent of his art, [46]; reflection, [75];
religious outlook, [64]; satires, [27];
Shakespeare compared with, [145], [154], [165];
style, [69]; wisdom of life, [15].
Art, essence, [39], [40]; for art's sake, [10], [11], [12];
futile and material, [12]; in its idea, [35], [38];
musical character, [277]; of Shakespeare, [274].
Artist, end or content, [35]; poet and, [41], [44].
As You Like It, [170], [198].
Astolfo, [109].
Attila, [344].
Attila, [419].
Augustus, [343], [344], [345], [366]. Baconian hypothesis, [131].
Balzac, Honoré de, [391].
Barnadine, [265].
Beatrice (Dante's), [178].
Beatrice and Benedick, [170].
Beauty, [39].
Bembo, Pietro, [359].
Bentivoglio, Hercules, [20].
Bibbivena, Cardinal, [190].
Biography, details of poets', [133]; Shakespeare, [157].
Boiardo, M. M., [95], [97], [106], [112]; Orlando Innamorato, [105].
Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas, [86].
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, [207], [208].
Brandes, G. M. C, [126], [127], [134]
Brunello, [109].
Brunetière, Ferdinand, [402].
Brutus, [248], [258], [317].
Burlesque in Shakespeare, [198].
Caesar, Julius, [249].
Calandria, [190].
Caliban, [261].
Camilla, [343], [345].
Canello, U. A., [7].
Canova, Antonio, [36].
Cantù, Cesare, [7].
Carducci, Giosnè, [7], [10], [30].
Carlyle, Thomas, [302].
Cassius, [249].
Castro, Guillen de, [339], [346], [347], [380].
Casuistry, [390].
Catherine (Shakespeare's), [168].
Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, [95].
Characters, Ariosto's, [80], [82];
Corneille's, [410].
Chasles, Michel, [136].
Chateaubriand, F. A. R., on Shakespeare, [285].
Chimène, [382].
Chivalry, Ariosto and, [13], [14], [15]; poets and poems of, [95].
Cid, [339], [340], [342], [348], [380], [402], [414].
Cinna, [343], [344], [355], [383], [402], [414].
Cinque Canti, [88], [90].
Cinzio, Giraldi, [31], [41], [87].
Classicists, [35], [37].
Claudio, [264].
Cleopatra, [242].
Coleridge, S. T., on Shakespeare, [174], [287], [297], [303], [331].
Comedies, Ariosto's, [23].
Comedy of Errors, [189].
Comedy of love in Shakespeare, [163].
Comic, [214], [216]; in Corneille, [400].
Complexity, [222].
Concepts in Shakespeare, [149], [151].
"Confidential air," [69].
Conflict, [38], [39]; in Shakespeare, [148], [155].
Constance, Queen, [213].
Corday, Charlotte, [378].
Cordelia, [230].
Coriolanus, [212], [218].
Coriolanus, [294].
Corneille, Pierre, basis of tragedies, [356]; characters, [410];
critic and defenders, [337]; deliberative will, [366], [369], [389], [390], [423];
eulogy, [358]; ideal, [362]; love, [350], [369], [371], [387], [388], [416], [417], [418];
mechanism of his tragedy, [390], [397]; miscellaneous works, [386];
monotony, [428]; politics, personages, history, [372], [373], [375], [378];
practical passionality and its results, [393]; rational will, [349], [351];
reputation, [337]; source of inspiration, [376]; suppression of life, [393];
where his poetry lies, [408], [413], [425]
Cosmic poetry, [146].
Cressida, [180].
Criticism, office, [146], [147]; see also Shakespearean criticism.
Curiace, [411].
Cymbeline, 196, [199], [294].
Dante, [ 41], [151], [156], [178], [324].
Davenant, William, [123].
Death, [178], [210], [242], [263], [411], [412].
De Sanctis, Francesco, [10], [11], [13], [21], [40], [41], [82], [93], [96], [339], [428].
Descartes, René, [353], [377].
Desdemona, [238], [282], [308], [316], [317].
Discord, [226], [227].
Don Quixote, [189].
Dorchain, Auguste, [362].
Dream, [172].
Dualism, [42]; in Shakespeare, [155], [287], [288].
Duty, [372]; in Hamlet, [248]; in Macbeth, [225].
Emerson, R. W., on Shakespeare, [298].
Emilia, [401], [411].
Epicity, Ariosto's, [80]; Shakespeare's, [202], [204].
Eroticism in Ariosto, [26].
Ethics, Shakespeare's, [155].
Eurydice, [413].
Evil, as perversity in Othello, [237]; in Macbeth, [223].
Fagnet, Emile, [398], [410].
Falstaff, Sir John, [214], [309], [317].
Fate, [424]; in Shakespeare, [155].
Fauriel, C. C, [346].
Faust [84].
Ferdinand and Miranda, [184], [261].
Ferrara, [21], [24], [62].
Ferrara, Duke of, [22].
Ferrarese Homer, [114].
Fiordiligi, [55], [58], [91].
Fitton, Mary, [123], [129], [152].
Florence, [25], [96].
Form and content, in Shakespeare, [274].
Fragility, [258].
France, military spirit, [378]; misunderstanding of Shakespeare, [321].
French Shakespeare, [404].
French theatre, [359].
Friar Laurence, [175].
Friendship, [57].
Furnivall, F. J., [304].
Gaillard, G. H., on Corneille, [341].
Galilei, Galileo, [80], [98].
Garfagnana, [21].
Garofalo, the Ferrarese, [53].
German criticism of Shakespeare, [139], [306], [323], [325].
Gerstenberg, H. W. von, [320].
Gervinus, G. G., [156], [307], [308], [309], [323].
Gerusalemme [6].
God in Shakespeare, [143], [154], [162].
Goethe, J. W. von, [16], [85]; on Shakespeare, [136], [149], [331].
Goneril, [231].
Good and evil, tragedy of, in Shakespeare, [221].
Goodness, in King Lear, [230];
in Macbeth,229; in Shakespeare, [143], [162];
material world and, [235].
Greatness, [223].
Grillparzer, Franz, [318].
Gundolf (writer on art), [353].
Hamlet, [193], [194], [248], [314], [318].
Hamlet, [248].
Hamlet-Litteratur, [313].
Harmony, Ariosto as poet of, [45]; Ariosto's attainment, [94];
concept, [34], [48]; cosmic, [39], [42]; realisation, [69].
Harrington, Sir John, [21].
Harris, Frank, [129], [134], [297].
Hazlitt, William, on Shakespeare, [142], [303].
Hegel, G. W. F., [13], [174], [177], [355].
Heine, Heinrich, on Shakespearean comedy, [166].
Henry V, [209].
Henry Fill, [259].
Héraclius, [412].
Herder, J. G. von, [302].
Hero, [211].
Historical plays, Shakespeare's, [202], [293];
Shakespeare's, personages, [211].
Historical romance, [205].
Historicity, in Shakespeare, [156], [159].
History, Corneille and, [375], [378]; Shakespeare and, [206].
Horace (Corneille's), [411].
Horace, [342], [383], [402], [414].
Hotspur, [211], [218].
Humanists, [35], [37].
Humboldt, K. W. von, [43].
Hugo, Victor, [302].
Humour, [145].
Hyacinth, [196], [199].
Iago, [236], [316], [330].
Ideals, in Shakespeare, [139].
Idyll, [187].
Imagination, [291].
Improvisation, [189].
Indulgence, in Shakespeare, [260], [263].
Innamorato, [105].
Inspiration, [112].
Irony, Ariosto's, [70], [75].
Isabella, Ariosto's octaves on the name, [93].
Italy, Shakespeare's indebtedness to, [325].
Jacobi, [427].
Jealousy, Ariosto's, [53].
Jessica and Lorenzo, [180].
Jew, [216], [217].
Juliet, [175].
Julius Caesar, [248].
Jussurand, J. A. A. J., on Shakespeare, [285].
Justice, [393]; in Shakespeare, [258].
King Lear, [230], [282], [286], [295], [303].
Kings, [209], [307], [374], [421].
Klein, J. L., on Corneille, [340].
Knightly romance, [62].
Kreyssig, Friedrich, [307], [323].
La Bruyère, Jean de, [351], [364].
Lanson, Gustave, [362], [394], [425].
Laurence, Friar, [175].
Lemaître, Jules, [362], [373].
Leopardi, Giacomo, [312].
Leopold Shakespeare, [304].
Lessing, G. E., [83]; on Corneille, [338].
Liberty, [425].
Life, in Corneille, [50], [351], [393];
love of life in Shakespeare's characters, [263];
Shakespeare's sense of, [141], [147].
Literary style, [305].
Literature in Shakespeare's time, [188], [192].
Logic, [396].
Love, [255]; Ariosto's love of woman, [20]; Ariosto's need, [30];
character of Ariosto's, [52]; comedy of, in Shakespeare, [163];
Corneille, [350], [369], [371], [387], [388], [416], [417], [418];
highest, [34]; Orlando Furioso matter, [55], [56].
Ludwig, Otto, on Shakespeare, [147], [275].
Lyricism. See Poetry.
Macbeth, [310], [315].
Macbeth, [134], [135], [222], [280].
Macbeth, Lady, [315].
Macduff, [281], [310].
Machiavelli, Niccolô, [24], [60], [79], [157], [373].
Maeterlinck, Maurice, [321].
Malvolio, [169].
Mandragola of Machiavelli, [24].
Manzoni, Alessandro, [16], [85]; on Shakespeare, [161].
Marfisa, [109].
Margutte, [102].
Marino, Giambattista, [191], [192], [194].
Marlowe, Christopher, [184], [191].
Material of the Orlando Furioso, [50], [52], [66].
Matrimony, [53].
Mazzini, Giuseppe, on Shakepeare, [296].
Measure for Measure, [197], [264], [294].
Mechanism, Corneille's, [390], [397].
Medoro, [58], [78], [91].
Melodrama, [399].
Menander, [165].
Mental presumptions, Shakespeare's, [152], [157], [160].
Merchant of Venice, [180], [217], [295].
Midsummer Night's Dream, [171].
Miranda, [184], [261].
Mocedades, [339], [340].
Moderation, [292].
Monotony, in Corneille, [428].
Montaigne, M. E., [136], [157].
Monti, Vincenzo,

[36].
Morf, Heinrich, [7].
Morgante, [98].
Much Ado About Nothing, [170].
Music, [43], [149], [179], [180], [243].
Mystery, in Shakespeare, [148].
Names, Ariosto's use, [74].
Naturalism, Ariosto's, [76], [78], [79].
Nature, in Ariosto, [83]; in Shakespeare, [319].
Neoplatonism, [40].
Nicomède, [422].
Nicomède, [394], [395].
Nietzsche, Friedrich, [365], [379].
Oberon, [172].
O'Brien, Florence, [303].
Octaves, Ariosto's, [71].
Oedipe, [423].
Olympia, [72], [77].
Ophelia, [255], [314], [315].
Orlando, [101], [109]; madness, [81].
Orlando Furioso, character and personages, [80], [82];
critical problem, [3]; emotional passages, [91];
frivolity and seriousness, [85]; languid parts, [89];
love matter, [55], [56]; material, [50], [52], [66];
obsolete problems, [7]; reading, methods of, [84];
relation to Ariosto's minor works, [28]; restraint, [93];
scrupulous attention of its author, [30]; spirit which animates, [34];
toning down, [90].
Orlando Innamorato, [105].
Othello, [238], [288], [316], [317].
Othello, [236], [282], [308].
Othon, [355].
Ovid, [112].
Painting, [43].
Pandarus, [181].
Parrizzi, Antonio, [7].
Passions, [349], [371], [372], [377], [390], [391], [392].
Past, love of, [36], [37]; nostalgia for, [205].
Pastiche, [37].
Pauline, [342].
Pellissier, G. J. M., [284].
Pembroke theory as to Shakespeare's Sonnets, [122].
Pertharite, [420], [421].
Petrarch, Francesco, [41], [112].
Petruchio, [168].
Philiberta of Savoy, [25].
Philocleon, [392].
Philologism, [50], [78], [121], [132], [133].
Philosophy, Ariosto's, [48], [65]; Shakespeare's, [149], [159], [252].
Picaresque romance, [100].
Place Royale, [387], [403].
Platen, August, [296], [298].
Plautus, [190].
Pleasure, [242].
Poet and artist, [41], [44].
Poetry, [276], [278], [305], [307], [351], [357], [404];
Corneille's, [408], [413], [425]; cosmic, [146];
didactic, [355]; latent poets, [426]; non-lyrical, [354];
rationalistic, [352], [354].
Politian, Angelo, [36], [99], [112], [113], [194].
Politics, in Ariosto, [59]; in Corneille, [372];
in Shakespeare, [156].
Polyeucte, [342], [343], [383], [402], [414].
Pontano, G. G., [36].
Portia, [179].
Power, will for, [365], [379].
Pre-philosophy, Shakespeare's, [160].
Promessi Sposi, [84], [85].
Prospero, [260], [273].
Puck, [172].
Pulchérie, [415], [416].
Pulchérie, [384].
Pulci, Luigi, [95], [98], [112]; Morgante, [98].
Quickly, Mistress, [220].
Quixote, Don, [187].
Rabelais, François, [76], [181].
Racine, Jean, [341], [349], [358], [364].
Rajna, Pio, [7], [97].
Rape of Lucrèce, [191].
Reason, in Corneille, [349], [351].
Reflections of Ariosto, [75].
Regan, [231].
Religious beliefs, in Ariosto, [64].
Renaissance, [65]; Shakespeare and, [158], [298], [325].
Rhythm, in Corneille, [426]; of the universe, [42], [43].
Richard II, [208].
Richard III, [213], [307].
Rinaldo, [101], [109].
Rio (Shakespearean critic), [152].
Rodogune, [338], [342], [364], [367].
Rodolinde, Queen, [420], [421].
Rodrigo, [347].
Rodrique, [382].
Romance, in Corneille, [404]; in Shakespeare, [261];
Shakespeare's romantic plays, [185].
Romances, [95].
Romeo and Juliet, [174], [288].
Rümelin, Gustav, [137], [286], [287], [308].
Rutland, Earl of, [131].
Sadoleto, Cardinal, [85].
Sainte-Beuve, C. A., on Corneille, [429]; on French tragedy, [353].
St. John, Ariosto's representation, [77].
Salvemini, Signor, [96].
Sannazaro, Jacopo, [36].
Sarcasm, [231].
Schack, A. F., on Corneille, [339].
Schiller, J. C. F. von, [297]; on Corneille, [338], [427].
Schlegel, A. W., on Corneille, [338], [373];
on Shakespeare, [139].[174], [321], [384], [428].
Schlegel, Frederick, on French tragedy, [352].
Scientific study, [8].
Scott, Walter, [205].
Sculpture, [43].
Seneca, [191], [379], [396].
Sentiment, Shakespearean, [138], [143], [149].
Seriousness, Ariosto's[85].
Sertorius, [355].
Shakespeare, William, analysis and eulogy of plays, [280];
as a German poet, [319], [320], [323], [325];
Ariosto compared with, [145], [154], [165];
art of, [274]; biographical problem, [157];
biography, useless labours and conjectures, [122];
chronology of plays, [119], [121]; classical, [291];
comedy of love, [163]; comparisons with certain painters, [147];
conceptions, [149], [151]; conflict, [155]; Corneille and, [404];
distinction of lesser and greater Shakespeare, [221];
dualism, [155], [287], [288]; English indifference to, in former times, [322];
errors and defects, [289], [295]; ethics, [155];
excellence long disputed, [284]; Fate, [155];
fidelity to Nature, [319]; French judgments on his art, [284];
goodness and God, [143], [154], [162]; historical plays, [293];
historicity, [156], [159]; ideal development and chronological series, [266];
idealism, [139]; interest in practical action, and his historical plays, [200];
justice and indulgence as motives in his plays, [258];
life of his time, [158]; literary education, [325];
literature of his time and his literary plays, [188], [192];
mass of work devoted to, [333]; mental presuppositions, [152], [157], [160];
models, [130]; moderation, [292]; motives and development of his poetry, [163];
mystery, [148]; order of plays, [266]; ourselves and, [328];
philosophy, [149], [159], [252]; political faith, [156];
practical personality and poetical personality, [117];
pre-philosophy, [160]; reading, Shakespeare's course of, [136], [157];
religion, [152]; Renaissance and, [158], [298], [325]; romance, [261];
romance as a motive and the romantic plays, [185];
sense of life, [141], [147]; sentiment, [138], [143], [149];
society of the time, [135]; Sonnets, [192];
Sonnets, theories about, [122]; soul of his poetry, [306];
strife, conflict, war, [147], [148]; taste, [291];
theatrical representation, [330]; universality, [138], [150];
useless conjectures about plays, [123]; useless philology, [121].
Shakespearean criticism, [300]; criticism by images, [302];
exclamatory criticism, [301]; French and Italian, [321], [324];
German school, [306], [320], [322]; objectivistic, [312];
philological, [303]; present age, [333]; rhetorical, [305].
Shylock, [216].
Sleep, [227].
Sonata form, [277].
Sonnets, Shakespeare's, [122], [192].
Sources, [50].
Southampton, Earl of, [122], [131].
Southampton theory as to Shakespeare's Sonnets, [122].
Stanley, William, [132].
State, [391].
Steinweg (philologist), [428], [429].
Stoveisus, [375], [418].
Stories of knightly romance, [62].
Strife, [38], [39]; in Shakespeare, [146], [147].
Sturm und Drang, [320].
Styles of writing, [305]; Ariosto's style, [69].
Sulzer, J. G., [10], [86].
Suréna, [411].
Suréna, [413].
Swinburne, A. C, on Shakespeare, [270], [301].
System, [359], [360], [361].
Taine, H. A., [135];[357]; on Shakespeare, [142].
Taming of the Shrew, [168].
Tasso, Torquato, [90], [98], [114], [199].
Tears, [418].
Technique, [275].
Tempest, [184], [260], [307].
Theseus, [423].
Timon of Athens, [294].
Titania, [172].
Titus Andronicus, [190].
Tolomei, Claudio, [32].
Tolstoi, Leo, on Shakespeare, [139], [285].
Toning down, in Ariosto, [90].
Tornabuoni, Lucrezia, [99].
Tragedy, Corneille's mechanism, [390], [397];
French rationalistic, [352]; of character, [360];
of good and evil, in Shakespeare, [221]; of the will, [241].
Trammels, [404].
Troilus and Cressida, [180], [295].
Twelfth Night, [169], [190].
Two Gentlemen of Verona, [167].
Ulrici, Hermann, [156], [307], [310].
Unity, [39].
Universal, in Shakespeare, [138], [150].
Universe, rhythm of, [42], [43].
Unreality, [196].
Vauvenargues, L. de C., [340], [427].
Venus and Adonis, [191], [194].
Verdi, Giuseppe, [330].
Vico, Giambattista, [290].
Virtue, in Shakespeare, [162].
Vischer, F. T. von, [10], [43], [139], [307].
Voltaire, J. F. M. A., on Corneille, [340], [346], [355],
358, [385], [398]; on Shakespeare, [284], [321].
Voluptuousness, [241].
War, in Shakespeare, [148].
Will, [425]; deliberative, [366], [369], [378], [389], [390], [423];
pure, [364]; rational, in Corneille, [349], [351];
resolute, [413]; sophistry of, [226]; tragedy of, [241];
"will for power,"[365], [379].
Winckelmann, J. J., [43].
Winter's Tale, [198], [199], [294].
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