Lecture XX
Voltaire—Tragedies on Greek Subjects: Oedipe, Merope, Oreste—
Tragedies on Roman Subjects: Brute, Mort de César, Catiline, Le
Triumvirat—Earlier Pieces: Zaire, Alzire, Mahomet, Semiramis,
And Tancred.
Lecture XXI
French Comedy—Molière—Criticism of his Works—Scarron, Boursault, Regnard; Comedies in the Time of the Regency; Marivaux and Destouches; Piron and Gresset—Later Attempts—The Heroic Opera: Quinault—Operettes and Vaudevilles—Diderot’s attempted Change of the Theatre—The Weeping Drama—Beaumarchais—Melo-Dramas—Merits and Defects of the Histrionic Art.