The latter had not been admitted to the body until 1641, after having undergone two rebuffs.
Corneille had died in the night.

The Academy decided in favor of Abbe de Lavau, the outgoing director.

"Nobody but you could pretend to bury Corneille," said Benserade to Racine, "yet you have not been able to obtain the chance." It was only when he received into the Academy Thomas Corneille, in his brother's place, that Racine could praise to his heart's content the master and rival who, in old age, had done him the honor to dread him.

"My father had not been happy in his speech at his own admission," says Louis Racine ingenuously; "he was in this, because he spoke out of the abundance of his heart, being inwardly convinced that Corneille was worth much more than he." Louis XIV.

had come in for as great a share as Corneille in Racine's praises.