The Phédre and Athalie of Racine are certainly masterpieces, and little inferior to them are Iphigénie, Andromaque and Britannicus, but in the others I think he must be pronounced inferior to Voltaire; as a proof of my argument I need only cite Zaïre, Alzire, Mahomet, Sémiramis, l'Orphelin de la Chine, Brutus.

They were so much her inferiors there could be no impropriety in doing so!