E P I S T L E

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE TEMPLARS.

Happy is he who knows how, praising without flattery,
To honor genius with a voluntary incense,
Who sees his works escape the sting of censure,
And among his friends can count his rivals.
Raynouard François-Just-Marie Raynouard (1761–1836) was a French dramatist and historian. His play Les Templiers (1805) was a sensation, reviving interest in the medieval order., thanks to your verses which Corneille Pierre Corneille (1606–1684), the "father of French tragedy." By comparing Raynouard to him, the author is offering the highest possible literary praise. would have claimed,
The theater today counts another wonder;
You raise again the honor of French poets,
And the stage owes to you its new splendor.
The sighs of Alamar A reference to Alamar ou le Siège de Rouen (1805), a play by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly that was poorly received., the madness of Tasso Likely referring to La Folie du Tasse (1799), a play depicting the mental decline of the Italian poet Torquato Tasso; the author suggests these plays were signs of a declining dramatic art.,
Accused the tragic writers of this century of impotence;
Weighed down by the shameful burden of most just contempt,
Pierre Referring to the play Pierre le Grand (1804) by Carrion-Nisas, which was so poorly received that its failure became a popular joke in Paris. had cheered all Paris with his downfall.
Only Agamemnon A successful tragedy by Népomucène Lemercier, first performed in 1797, which remained a rare highlight of the era's repertoire., triumphing over the theater cabals,
Still shone upon the stage at intervals,
Astounding our minds with its masculine beauties . . . .
Happy had it only held what it had promised!
In vain the desolate troupe of actors
Announced Polyxena A tragedy by Étienne Aignan (1804) that failed to achieve lasting success. and the Stolen Box Likely a reference to a minor contemporary comedy or vaudeville that failed to attract an audience.;
These works, praised in twenty different circles,
Imprudently offered to the eyes of the public,
Fell... as in autumn one sees fall