SOURCE: "Final Estimate of Corneille: Fall of Classicism and Rise of Romanticism, Latest Developments," in A Study in Corneille, 1891. Reprint by Burt Franklin, 1970, pp. 281-313.

In the following excerpt from the major nineteenth-century treatment of Corneille in English, Lodge determines and assesses Corneille's contribution to French drama.

If it be asked what was the historic function that Corneille performed, we may answer that he banished bad taste from the theatre, that he quickened with the touch of life the chaotic theatrical materials which he found at his coming, that he divined, developed and determined the classical drama, and that he peopled the French stage with heroic characters whom he idealized from real life, bestowing true passions upon them and causing them to give to the age object lessons in ethical science. He exerted a powerful influence upon both departments of dramatic art.

By writing Le Cid, he created...