The failure of _Phedre_ was brutal and cruel, which was added to by the scandalous success of the _Phedre_ of an unworthy rival.

Racine's friends, the Port Royalists, did not hesitate to make the most of the opportunity.

"You've lost your soul," they told him.

"And now you haven't even success." But later, when he took up his pen again, he gave us two masterpieces in _Esther_ and _Athalie_.
Rossini was accustomed to success and it was hard for him to run into a half-hearted success when he knew he had surpassed himself.

This was doubtless due to the extravagant phraseology of Hippolyte Bis, one of the librettists.