Jean Baptiste Poquelin (Molière), the greatest of French dramatists, was born in Paris, January 15 (?), 1622, and died there, February 17, 1673. Among his famous works are: “The Misanthrope,” “The Learned Ladies,” “The School for Wives,” “The Imaginary Invalid,” “The Miser,” “Don Juan,” “The School for Husbands,” and “Tartuffe,” which is considered by many to be his masterpiece.
Die Thränen sind des Schmerzes heilig Recht![2]
“Sappho, III, 5,”—Fr. Grillparzer.
Franz Grillparzer, a renowned Austrian poet and dramatist, was born in Vienna, January 15, 1791, and died there January 21, 1872. Among his noted works are: “Blanche of Castile,” “The Ancestress,” “Sappho,” “The Jewess of Toledo,” “The Poor Minstrel,” etc., also two famous poems, “Waves of Ocean; Thrills of Love,” and “In Thy Camp is Austria.”
The pure, the beautiful, the bright,
That stirred our hearts in youth,
The impulse to a wordless prayer,
The dreams of love and truth,
The longings after something lost,
The spirit’s yearning cry,
The strivings after better hopes,
These things can never die.
“Things that Never Die,”—Sarah Doudney.
Sarah Doudney, a noted English writer of fiction, was born near Portsmouth, England, January 15, 1843. She has written: “Under Grey Walls,” “The Pilot’s Daughters,” “Nothing But Leaves,” “Under False Colours,” “The Lesson of the Water Mill,” “The Missing Rubies,” “When We Two Parted,” “Through Pain to Peace,” “Pilgrims of the Night,” “A Cluster of Roses,” “Silent Strings,” “One of the Few,” “Shadow and Shine,” etc.
Tant la plume a eu sous le roi d’avantage sur l’epée.[3]
“Mémoires,” Vol. iii, p. 517 (1702), Ed. 1856.—Saint-Simon.
Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon, the great French annalist, was born January 16, 1675, and died March 2, 1755. His notable works are: His famous “Memoirs,” published in twenty volumes.