The ode and the epic contain it only in germ; it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both.

Surely, he who said: "The French have not the epic brain," said a true and clever thing; if he had said, "The moderns," the clever remark would have been profound.

It is beyond question, however, that there is epic genius in that marvellous _Athalie,_ so exalted and so simple in its sublimity that the royal century was unable to comprehend it.

It is certain, too, that the series of Shakespeare's chronicle dramas presents a grand epic aspect.

But it is lyric poetry above all that befits the drama; it never embarrasses it, adapts itself to all its caprices, disports itself in all forms, sometimes sublime as in Ariel, sometimes grotesque as in Caliban.