I have no ear for metre or trivialities of the kind, but I can sympathise with the spirit of poetry, and I am conscious that Corneille is far the greatest of poets.

I would have made him my prime minister had he had the good fortune to live in my epoch.

It is his intellect which I admire, his knowledge of the human heart, and his profound feeling.
Are you writing anything at present ?' 'I am writing a tragedy upon Henry IV., sire.' 'It will not do, sir.

It is too near the present day, and I will not have politics upon the stage.

Write a play about Alexander.