The disagreement was not destined to disturb the equity of their judgments upon one another.

When Racine brought out _Les Plaideurs,_ which was not successful at first, Moliere, as he left, said out loud, "The comedy is excellent, and they who deride it deserve to be derided." One of Racine's friends, thinking to do him a pleasure, went to him in all haste to tell him of the failure of the _Misanthrope_ at its first representation.

"The piece has fallen flat," said he; "never was there anything so dull; you can believe what I say, for I was there." "You were there, and I was not," replied Racine, "and yet I don't believe it, because it is impossible that Moliere should have written a bad piece.

Go again, and pay more attention to it." Racine had just brought out _Alexandre_ when he became connected with Boileau, who was three years his senior, and who had already published several of his satires.

"I have a surprising facility in writing my verses," said the young tragic author ingenuously.