UC-NRLF $B S^b 5^b The Drama of Honore de Balzac BY WALTER SCOTT HASTINGS A UiSSERTATION SUBMITTED IV Xiii BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSTTy • -^ CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOB. THE L.CGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BALTIMORE 1917 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/dramaofhonordeOOhastrich THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC The Drama of Honore de Balzac BY WALTER SCOTT HASTINGS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BALTIMORE 1917 GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY MENASHA, WISCONSIN TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. Introduction 1 Chapter II. Unfruitful Attempts at the Drama IS Chapter III. Vi^cole des minages 37 Chapter IV. Vautrin 52 Chapter V. Les Ressources de Quinola 72 Chapter VI. Pamela Giraud 92 Chapter VII. La Mardtre 103 Chapter VIII. Mercadet 115 Chapter IX. Conclusions 138 Bibliography 147 Appendix 153 Vita 159 H 4S1845 I INTRODUCTION Honore de Balzac, the novelist and short-story writer, has been the object of countless critical and popular studies. Nearly every phase of the author's work has been treated, to say nothing of the mass of biographical data that patient and painstaking critics have collected. In Spoelberch de Lovenjoul's extremely valuable book, devoted to the history of Balzac's works,^ there are no less than forty-five pages of critical bibliography. The present study, how- ever, will deal with a phase of his work which has been purposely neglected by the majority of Balzac students: his drama. Such studies as have been already made are far from complete, and the Balzac drama remains little known in its entirety.^ Marcel Barriere, whose treatment of Balzac's literary labors is for the most part sympathetic and exact, dismisses the drama with a few general con- siderations such as the following: "Un romancier a tou jours, plus ou moins, le temperament d'un auteur dramatique."^ In Bire's excellent volume, the author has brought to light a quantity of inter- esting biographical material concerning Balzac historian, royalist and dramatist,. but in treating the latter phase he has confined him- self more especially to a history of the plays, to a discussion of the successive stages leading to their production or refusal by Parisian theatrical directors. Paul Flat, in his essay of fifteen pages, traces the motives which induced Balzac to write plays, the cause of his failure, and concludes summarily that the drama is a negligible part of his work. It is scarcely necessary to mention here the pages in Lemer's work on Balzac^ which contain merely a few personal recol- lections of the plays. M. Le Breton would like to find in the drama some germ of Balzac's influence upon the realistic stage, but concludes, and with reason, that the younger Dumas and Augier found inspira- ^ Histoire des osuvres de HofwrS de Balzac, 1879; second edition, 1886; third edition, 1888. References in this study are to the third edition. ^ See especially Edmond Eire, Honore de Balzac, 1897; Paul Flat, Seconds Essais sur Balzac, 1894. 3 VCEuvre de Balzac, 1890, p. 453. *• Balzac: sa vie — son oeuvre, 1892, pp. 338-343. V 2 THE DRAMA OF HONOr£ DE BALZAC tion not in the actual stage productions of this "father of realism," but in the Human Comedy.* However negative the results that may be obtained, the motives which tempted the great novelist to write plays and the fashion in which he conceived them, his knowledge of the theatre of his day and his actual contact with the stage are all questions which should interest the Balzac student. To treat these questions, emphasizing the fact that Balzac was haunted throughout his life by the desire for dramatic success, and that at no time was his mind entirely free of theatrical projects, is the purpose of this study. Theatrical projects occupied Balzac's mind during the whole of his literary career. During the labor of composition of the unlucky ^cole des menages^ the author wrote to Armand Pereme: J'ai, depuis dix ans, travaill6 en vue du th6&tre, et vous connaissez mes id6es i cet6gard. EUes sont vastes, et leur realization m'effraie souvent. Mais je ne manque ni de Constance ni de travaux refaits avec patience. . . . [Pour r6ussir,] il ne faut que du travail, soutenu de quelque chose que je me sens en moi: motus^? There is the same note of tireless endeavor in these lines that Balzac voiced so often about the composition of his novels. At the time this letter was written, the author of le Dernier Chouan^ le Pbre Goriot and Eugenie Grandet had already become a name in Parisian literary circles, and was safely on the road to novelistic success. The idea, however, of placing his figures of fiction directly before an audience, and the desire to see the strong reflection of the footlights in their faces never ceased to torment him. Balzac himself recounts the warning which the poet Heine once made to him when the two were discussing the stage: Prenez-y garde: celui qui s'est habitu6 ^ Brest ne pent pas s'accoutumer & Toulon. Restez dans votre bagne.' This advice we know Balzac did not heed. Besides his six published plays, we have the evidence of numerous other dramatic projects from scattered fragments, scenarios, scenes and lists of personages.® ^Balzac, Vhomme et Voeuvre, 1905. •December 4, 1838. Letter published in Lovenjoul's Aulour de Honori de Balzac, p. 119. ' LEU, Vol. I, p. 412. July 19, 1837. •At the death of the Viscount Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, a most ardent and consciencious bibliophile, his magnificent collection of Balzaciana, including the theatrical fragments, became the property of the French government, and was placed at Chantilly under the care of M. Georges Vicaire. See £. Henriot, in les Annates romantiques, Vol. XI, 1. 1914. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 3 Why then was Balzac attracted towards the theatre? > We find a partial solution of the question in one of the greatest I \ factors in his life: the neM of mone y. A successful play meant ' primarily to the novelist a solution of pressing financial difficulties, and at what period of his life was he free from these? From the , miserable days in the Lesdiguieres garret, the desire for wealth j became an obsession, and at no moment in his career did the furtive millions come within his grasp. They constitute, as it were, the great romance and the great tragedy of his life, and no study of Balzac can be separated from this theme. When the novelist set out with the energy of Napoleon to conquer Europe with his pen,' the gigantic labor of his task and the fury of his production were scarcely in proportion to the financial returns they brought him: Pour me liquider, cette effroyable production de livres, qui a entrain6 des masses d'^preuves, ne sufl5t pas: II faut en venir au thSdtre, dont les revenus sont finormes conipar^s k ceux que nous font les livres.^" Again he writes: Le th6&tre me vaudrait deux cent mille francs par an. Je sais, k n'en pas douter, que j'y ferais en peu de temps ma fortune, mais vous oubliez que je n'ai pas six mois k moi, ni un mois, sans cela je n'eusse pas fait une pi^ce, j'aurais 6t6 vous voir." Dramatic works, he repeats time and time again, are more productive than novels, and his whole attitude towards them was one of confi- dence in their financial success. On the eve of Vautrin, his principal interest and anxiety seems to have been centered about this one fact: Jugez quelles seront mes angoisses pendant la soir6e oii Vautrin sera repr6sent6. Dans cinq heures de temps, il sera decide si je paie ou si je ne paie pas mes dettes.^ Again, he says of Vautrin: n paralt que je puis compter sur un grand succ^s d'argent; je I'ai faite pour cela." As rapidly as theatrical propositions were made to Balzac, he calcu- lated their probable financial result scene by scene. Speaking of a proposed play called la Gina, he writes to Mme Hanska: • "Ce qu'il avait commenc6 par r6p6e, je Tach^verai par la plume," Balzac is related to have inscribed on a statuette of the Emperor. Gozlan, Balzac chez luiy 1862, p. 214. " LEt., Vol. I, p. 273. August 23, 1835. " Ibid., p. 240. March 11, 1835. »* Ibid., p. 530. February 10, 1840. " Ibid., p. 525. January 20, 1840. 4 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC Les propositions ne me manquent pas. On m'offre, d'un cote, vingt mille francs de prime, pour quinze actes, et j'ai les quinze actes dans la t6te, mais non sur le papier.** It is with a note of despair that Balzac describes to Mme Zulma Carraud the refusal by the Renaissance of his J^cole des menages. He needed six thousand francs by the end of February; he began to work feverishly at his play, sleeping three hours out of the twenty- four, employing twenty extra men at the printing office. The play was turned down for a new production of Dumas'.^^ ^ Not until Balzac began to meditate his comedy Mercadet do we find him enthusiastic over a theatrical success in any other light than financial. Mercadet was to his mind something worth while: C'est exclusivement une comedie, et j'esp^re cette fois avoir un succ^s et satisfaire les exigences litteraires.*^ Mercadet, he declares, is a gay production which should enliven and elevate the disgusting atmosphere of the boulevard stage.^^ But the desire for gain was not the only spur which goaded Balzac on to play writing. In 1842, he writes to Mme Hanska: Je vais voir un drame h. I'Oddon, celui qui me pr6c&de, Cidric-le-Norw6gien, de Pyat. Hier Lorenzino, de Dumas, est tomb^; la Chaine, de Scribe, n'a pas 6t6 un succSs. Ce serait bien beau pour moi si j'6tais le succds de la saison!*^ The ambition to succeed in more than one type of literary production helped to turn Balzac to the stage. Other novelists — in fact, most of the contemporaries — had tried their hand at the theatre, and were being talked about. Hugo had produced Lucrece Borgia and Marie-Tudor in 1833, Angelo in 1835, and Ruy Bias in 1838; Vigny's novels, Cinq-Mars and Stello, were followed in 1835 by a play. Chatter- ton; and, finally, Dumas became immensely popular for a time after Henri III and Antony. George Sand was likewise writing for the stage, and Balzac confesses that it is the diversity of Musset's work that pleases him.^^ But these romantic plays were short-lived, and the public soon became dissatisfied with the ordinary type of melo- drama. In 1840, Hernani and la Marechale d'Ancre failed. Vigny did not possess the dramatic instinct, and left the stage early. ** LEt., Vol. I, p. 489. September 17, 1838. ^ Corr., p. 327. March, 1839. « LEL, Vol. I, p. 536. May 10, 1840. " LEL, Vol. II, p. 329. March 11, 1844. i8/6iJ., p. 21. " La Rente parisienne, August 25, 1840. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 5 Dumas, moreover, was forced to amuse his audiences with immense kaleidoscopic effects. In 1838, Gautier writes: Le mouvement si energiquement imprime a Tart dramatique par Christine, Hernani, Henri III, ne s'est pas continue ; nous avons cm un moment que nous allions avoir un theatre modeme; mais nos esperances ont ^te trompees.^" Balzac felt that there was work for him to do in this field. With Sand, Musset, Dumas, Hugo and others busily engaged in writing plays, the stage, as Paul Flat so justly remarks, became for him "une necessity litteraire.''^! As we shall see, at the beginning of his literary career, dramatic projects occupied a vast amount of space. ^ At the very height of his novelistic success, stirred by the ambition to emulate his contemporaries, he returned to the stage, and busied himself with scenic plans until the end of his life. However, the fruitless search for financial success and for reputa- tion in a wider field, already conquered by other men of genius, were not the only reasons for Balzac's dramatic activity. There is also apparent an unselfish aspiration to broaden his genius, an effort which can be explained by the nature of the man himself. The dramatic form was well-suited and well-nigh a necessity to such a mind as his, devoured by a passion for life. Leon Gozlan relates a conversation between Balzac and the notorious police-agent, Vidocq, during which the latter held that reality was more dramatic than fiction. Balzac is quoted as replying: Ah! vous croyez a la reality, mon cher Vidocq. Vous me charmez. Je ne vous aurez pas suppose si naif. La r^alit^! parlez-m'en. Vous revenez de ce beau pays. Allons done! C'est nous qui la faisons, la reality !^ Balzac was this "maker of reality," whose powerful imagination would not let him rest from his probing and dissection and repro- duction of society. The Human Comedy was to be a faithful representation of this labor: J'ai entrepris I'histoire de toute la sdci^te. J'ai exprim^ souvent mon plan dans cette seule phrase : "Une generation est un drame k quatre ou cinq mille personnages saillants." Ce drame, c'est mon livre.^' In the Human Comedy we discover the presence of more than one precious dramatic gift. Gautier has noted perhaps the capital one: 2° Histoire de Vart dramatique, Vol. I, p. 84. 2^ Seconds Essais sur Balzac, p, 106. ^ Balzac chez lui: Souvenirs des Jardies, 1862, p. 214. 23 (Emres, Vol. XXII, p. 547. 6 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC Une qualit6 de Balzac semblait le pr6destiner au th^itre, c'est la puissance de peindre les caract^res." His characters were real personages to him. It was his great boast that they should rival life itself. They spoke to him; he could see their rags and their furs; their gestures, their tricks of speech, their passions haunted his dreams. Werdet, in his book of personal reminiscences,*^ cites many instances of his friend's confusion of reality and fiction. But it is not alone in his force of characterization that Balzac has displayed a dramatic turn of mind. He possessed also a sense for situation and for dialogue. Hostile glances exchanged by two jealous women over a tea-table furnished the germ of his drama, la Mardtre.^ He knew how to seize upon a dramatic moment and to reproduce it in the manner of a veritable coup de thidtre. At times, the novelistic framework seems to drop completely, and stage-scenes, which might be transported to the theatre and the actors without the change of a word, stand forth in bold relief. Such is the scene in la Rabouilleuse of Philippe Bridau's drunken delirium at the bedside of his dying aunt. Such again is the scene in which the ghastly old Colonel Chabert arrives at Derville's oflSce after midnight: Monsieur, lui dit Derville, k qui ai-je I'honneur de parler? — Au Colonel Chabert. — Lequel? — Celui qui est mort k Eylau. Balzac's genius was of that peculiar type which was bound to lead him to the theatre. He possessed the dramatic sense for characterization, for situation and for dialogue. He knew, to borrow a definition of Houssaye's," "Part de faire sortir,de situations qu'on voit tous les jours dans la vie reelle, des scenes du plus grand effet dramatique, sans employer d'autres ressources que les sentiments et les passions." Such a temperament was bound to approach the stage, where living actors might translate into action the creatures of his lively imagina- tion, and where a public might come into contact with his world. When we seek to discover what direct contact Balzac during his early life had with the stage, we are surprised to find almost a void. »• Histoire de Vart dramatique, Vol. Ill, p. 102. " Portrait intime de Balzac. Sa vie, son humeur et son caractere, 1859. * See pp. 108-9. " Les Hommes et les idies, 1886, p. 203. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 7 He seems neither to have been a theatre-goer^^ nor to have read many plays. This may be easily explained by the fact that he had neither the time nor the money for such luxuries. His first real association with the stage dated from the days of the Lesdiguieres garret and the drama in verse which he called Cromwell. His interest at this time seems divided between the classical drama, which he did not know well, and the historical play, so much in vogue at the moment. To his sister he writes in 1819 about Lebrun^s tragedy, Marie Stuart^ which was then being given at the Theatre Fran^ais.^" He declares that subjects taken from antiquity are the most favor- able for tragedy, and that it is difficult to render a modern subject in- teresting. Our statesmen, he says, are all monotonous, and crimes of diplomacy are undramatic. He seems to have been thoroughly sincere in his classical leanings at this time. Corneille he calls "mon vieux general," and his greatest desire is to emulate Racine.'" After the production of his first plays we find him declaring in the face of Hugo that Racine is perfection; that Berenice will never be surpassed, and that Phkdre is the greatest r61e in modern times.'^ The first of the great classic plays that Balzac seems to have seen was Cinna. "Je n'ai pas encore vu jouer les pieces de Corneille, notre general," he writes to Mme Surville on the eve of witnessing a performance of that play.32 Later, we shall see that the impression left by this masterpiece was to make itself felt in Balzac's first drama. He professes total ignorance about the staging of plays and of the manner in which verses are recited. Still, he had read both Corneille and Racine, declared that Racine's verse seems superior to that of Corneille, and in 1825 he prefaced the edition of Moliere which his. own printing-house prepared with a notice on the great comedian.'* Later on in his life Balzac was more intimately associated with plays and the players. He knew the elder Dumas and Victor Hugo, and counted Theophile Gautier among his warmest friends. He was associated also with the leading actors of the day: Frederick 28 "II allait peu dans les tMatres; on ne Ta peut-6tre pas vu trois fois dans sa vie au foyer de la Com^die-frangaise." — Gozlan, Balzac en pantoufles, 1865, p. 17. 29Corr.,p. 11. 8° Ibid., p. 18. 31 LEL, Vol. II, p. 94. December 21, 1842. 32 Corr., p. 12. ^ (Euvres completes de Moliere. Paris, Delongchamps, Urbain Canel, Baudouin freres, 1826. The notice is published in (Euvres, Vol. XXII, pp. 1-8. 8 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC Lemaitre, Marie Dorval, Henry Monnier and others. In 1830, when he published with Emile de Girardin le Feuilleton des journaux poUtiques, he devoted considerable space to active dramatic criticism. Balzac had certain definite ideas about the romantic drama, and attacked it bitterly in la Caricature and le Feuilleton des journaux politiques. In general this criticism is vigorous and just. Hernani is made the subject of two detailed articles in le Feuilleton, dated March 24 and April 7, 1830.^'* Balzac attacks boldly the salient romantic faults exemplified in this play: the improbabilities of the action, the misappropriation of history, the lack of invention, the unreal characters. "Un drame est I'expression d'une passion humaine, d'une individualite ou d'un fait immense." Hernani, he concludes, belongs in none of these categories. The characters are not created according to "bon sens," Don Ruy is stupid, and Don Carlos might easily have been either Louis XVI or Louis XV. The subject is neither true to life nor reasonable, and suggests rather the matter of a ballad. Thus the play is undramatic, resembling the early work of Lope de Vega or of Calderon. After Marie-Tudor, in 1833, Balzac utters a storm of angry protest against Hugo's manner.^^ But he gives vent to his most biting sarcasm regarding Ruy Bias, which he terms "une enorme betise, une infamie en vers."^^ After Lucrece Borgia, he writes: J'ai vu Lucrece. . . .C'est un pastiche de Chenier, comme trente poetes de second ordre actuels eussent pu le mieux faire. Et, quand a la piece, il n'y a rien de plus enfant, de plus nul, de plus tragedie de college ! . . . Hugo a bien merite par ses sottises que Dieu lui envoyat un Ponsard pour rival! Ah! si vous saviez comme Lucrece est chose ermuyeuse! En France il n'y a de grand que ce qui est nU. Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, La Fontaine, Racine et Moliere meme, tous ont ete nies, discut6s, combattus.^' Later, the public acclaims les Burgraves as the highest expression of lyricism. Lyricism, says Balzac, is not dramatic.^^ He ridicules in this play the unreal stage appurtenances, the poor invention and Hugo's abuse of history: J'6tais a la premiere representation des Burgraves. II y a de magnifique poesie, mais Victor Hugo est decidement reste Venfant sublime, et ne sera que cela. C'est tou jours les memes enf antillages de prison, de cercueil, d'invraisemblances de la derniere 34 (Euvres, Vol. XXII, pp. 44-56. 36 LEL, Vol. I, pp. 81 and 85. ^lUd., p. 503. November 15, 1838. 37 IhU., Vol. II, p. 158. May 11, 1843. 38 IhU., p. 94. December 21, 1842. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 9 absurdite. Comme histoire, il n'en faut pas parler; comme invention, c'est de la derniere pauvrete. Mais la poesie enleve. C'est Titien peignant sur un mur de boue. II y a surtout une absence de coeur, qui se fait de plus en plus sentir. Victor Hugo n'est pas vraiP Of the other contemporary dramatists Balzac has little to say. After witnessing the first performance of la Camaraderie ou la Courte- Echelle, he decides that Scribe knows his ''metier," but that he is ignorant of art. He recognizes his talent and his tact, but he deplores his lack of seriousness and depth, and consequently his feeble style.*" Eugene Sue fares scarcely better, for Latreaumont he calls a "slack" play, and its author "un esprit borne et bourgeois," incapable of treating the gigantic aspects of Louis XIV's age."** This judgment is excessive, inspired no doubt by Sue's blasphemous treatment, to Balzac's mind, of the greatest epoch in French history. For the vaudeville Balzac expresses the utmost scorn: II vaut mieux une belle page non payee que cent mille francs d'un mauvais vaudeville.** Casting aside his projected play called la Gina^ he says: J'ai trouv6 mon personnage inadmissible. Un auteur de vaudeville n'eiit pas et6 arrets par cette difficulte.'*^ Perhaps the bitterest attack on this popular form of amusement is made in the following lines, after he had witnessed one of the numer- ous vaudevilles made up of Napoleonic episodes, so popular about 1830: J'ai 6t6 voir Virginie D6jazet representant Napoleon. Excellent plaisanterie ! Pendant que M. Victor Hugo fait des odes a la Colonne, il y a d'autres hommes qui la depecent, la taillent, se la partagent et la mettent en pieces de six liards, afin de donner a tout le monde un grand homme en petite monnaie. Napoleon en vaudeville, pros- titu^ par des com^diens de TAmbigu-Comique, des Varietes, ou M. Cazot s'est charge de nous en offrir les traits, du Vaudeville, du Cirque-Olympique, etc., est tout k fait digne de Napol6on en sucre d'orge, en liqueur, en savon.^ One very interesting bit of criticism from Balzac's pen concerns the work of Edouard Ourliac, and his short story entitled Collinet}^ 39 LEL, Vol. II, p. 125. March 19, 1843. *» Corr., p. 303. June 18, 1838. *' Ibid., pp. 280, 281. January 20, 1838. Balzac's opinion of Sue personally is energetically expressed in a letter to Mme Hanska, LEt., Vol. I, p. 321. April 25,1836. « LEL, Vol. I, p. 197. October 18, 1834. ^UUd., p. 489. September 18, 1838. ^ Lettres sur Paris. October 18, 1830. (Euvres, Vol. XXIII, p. 113. « La Revue parisienne, August 25, 1840. (Euvres, Vol. XXIII, pp. 745-48. 10 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC Ourliac, it will be remembered, was, along with Gautier, Laurent- Jan and others, to have been one of the collaborators in Vautrin. What Balzac admires especially in the young man's work is his handling of dialogue, his unexpected and sudden flashes of meridional wit — very precious dramatic traits — his clearness of vision and vivacity, so needful for the stage. Collinet contient une puissante et belle comedie, nous en verrons peut-fetre tirer quelque miserable vaudeville; tandis que, si les destin6es du Th6atre-Frangais 6taient entre les mains dignes de les dinger, M. Ourliac serait d6ji prie peut-6tre de travailler. Ourliac, he declares, is a first-rate dramatist with talent, and would furnish the Theatre-Fran fais with excellent work, at a moment when they are accepting poor compositions from incompetent authors. Balzac has repeatedly voiced this note of regret in criticizing the stage. Playwrights, to satisfy the hollow tastes and insistent de- mands of the day, have exhausted their ideas. In his Lettre aux ecrivains franqais^ he describes with some bitterness the state of the theatre in his day. A typical audience, uncultivated and uneducated, goes to see a play merely to be soothed to sleep after a heavy dinner! To satisfy these tastes, Paris, with its twelve theatres, offering to dramatic literature a budget of ten millions or more, is choked with thin, imitative plays, without creation or ideas, which will last perhaps for six weeks. The theatrical public demands a new play for every day in the year, and the authors, to fulfill this craving, themselves void of originality, go to novels, "prenant leur bien ou ils le trouvent." In his Lettres sur Paris , Balzac writes: Quand au th6itre, il est dans un 6tat de marasme incroyable; mais il faut attribuer ce calme desesperant k des causes secretes qu'il ne serait pas encore convenable de vous d6voiler. Au Th^&tre-Frangais, M. Alexandre Dumas s'oppose ^ la repr6sentation A' Antony. M. Casimir Delavigne retient Louis XI en portefeuille, M. Victor Hugo sa Marion Delorme, MM. Empis et Mazeres leur Changement de Minister e.^'^ And again he declares: Quand aux th6§,tres, k la litt^rature, k la po6sie, tout cela est mort. La trag6die, le talent et les grandes pensees ont trop couru par les rues pour qu'ils soient aux spectacles, ou dans les livres. La comedie commence i lever la t6te>* There is a great deal of sound insight and truth in this criticism, and it displays more than a passing interest in the stage. In Paris en * Appeared first, dated Paris, November 1, 1834, in la Revue de Paris of November, 1834. Published in CEuvres, Vol. XXII, pp. 221 sf. rr., p. 15. 16 Cf. supra, p. 7. i« Act IV, scene 2. 1' Cinna, Act I, scene 3. 20 THE DRAMA OP HONOR^ DE BALZAC For his character study, Balzac went to Bossuet, and studied the admirable tribute which the latter paid England's unhappy queen." From Bossuet he gleaned certain traits of his king, his justness and clemency, and especially, in the face of betrayal, his greatness of soul. Bossuet^s portrayal of Henrietta's self-sacrifices upon her return from the fruitless mission to Holland, her splendid defense of her husband and her pride so sadly humiliated before Cromwell, also attracted Balzac. He sought again his portrait of the Protector from Bossuet, this chief sent by God to liberate a kingdom, but here he hesitates, and cries out: "Bossuet m'epouvante!"" Cromwell was a beginning, and displays a serious interest in the stage; this is all we may say of the play. With the pages of his classic "generals" at hand, he set out to treat a modern historical theme, but the task he found too great for his untrained genius, and the result was a frigid and wearisome composition. During the year 1821 Balzac began to write his first novels, work- ing at his father's home near Paris. These were poor productions, all of them, and no one was quicker to realize it than the author himself. In the meanwhile Cromwell remained unfinished; in fact, the last word we hear about it is in a letter to the author's sister in 1822: Mes id6es changent tellement, que lefaire changerait bientfit! . . . Encore quelque temps, et il y aura entre le moi d'aujourd'hui et le moi de demain la diff6rence qui existe entre le jeune homme de vingt ans et Thomme de trente! Je r6fl6chis, mes id6es m^rissent, je reconnais que la nature m'a trait6 favorablement en me donnant mon cceur et ma t6te. Crois-moi, chere soeur, car j'ai besoin d'une croyante, je ne d6sespftrc pas d'etre un jour quelque chose. Je vois aujourd'hui que Cromwell n'avait pas m6me le m6rite d'etre un embryon; quand k mes romans, ils ne valent pas le diable, et ne sont pas si tentateurs surtout.*" A recollection of these youthful dramatic productions is to be found in la Feau de chagrin where Balzac writes: Une com6die devait en peu de jours me donner une renomm6e, une fortune, et l'entr6e de ce monde oii je voulais reparaltre en y exergant les droits r^galiens de Thomme de g^nie. Vous avez tous vu dans ce chef-d'oeuvre la premiere erreur d'un jeime honune qui sort du college, une veritable niaiserie d'enfant.'* " Oraison funebre de Henriette-Marie de France. November 16, 1669. *• Corr., p. 23. For further remarks on the sources of Cromwell, see Appendix. »76ia.,p. 45. « (Euvres, Vol. XV, p. 82. THE DRAMA OF HONOR^ DE BALZAC 21 It is not until ten years later that Balzac again occupies himself with the stage. During these years the novelist had already come into fame, and some of his best work had been written — les Chouans, Gohsecky le Colonel Chaberl^ Louis Lambert. At this time he was engrossed in his novels, working with his customary feverish haste in his Rue Cassini home, already undergoing the excessive and un- natural regime of long and sleepless hours. Except for a brief hint in his correspondence of certain proposed collaborations with Victor Ratier, editor of la Silhouette^ whose relations with Balzac were most cordial, no mention is made of theatrical activity until 1834. Bal- zac's letter to Ratier, written from Nemours in May of 1831, reads in part as follows: Mon judicieux ami, a mon retour, je ne demande pas mieux, toute speculation k part, que de travailler avec vous pour le theatre, en vous laissant tout I'honneur de nos compositions androgynes, de nous donner I'un k I'autre k tour dc r61e la canne de I'argousin pour frapper sur le torse du fain6ant. ... Si nous avons le bonheur de faire un bon Scribe de notre raison sociale Ratier, ce sera tant mieux et je le desire bien vivement.'^ Except for these few lines, nothing more is said of the proposed work. The subject of a historical play, with the plot laid at the court of Philip II, seems to have occupied the mind of Balzac for some years. The first mention which is made of such a play is in May, 1834, when he writes to Mme Hanska that he has thought of a tragedy in prose entitled Don Philippe et Don CharlesP The plans were set aside the following month, and we know little of the nature of these first sketches. The name which the author finally decided to give to his tragedy was Philip pe-le-Reserve, and he writes of it as follows: PhiUppe-le-Reserv6 (Felipe-il-discreto) est mis de c6t6. Ndanmoins, la litt6rature s'inquiete beaucoup de ma pi^ce. En r6ponse k ce que vous daignez m'en 6crire, je vous dirai que Carlos a €t6 si fort amoureux de la Reine, qu'il y avait preuve suffisantc que I'enfant dont elle est morte enceinte {traiUe pour une hydropisie, car Dieu prit en pitiS le trdne d'Espagne et aveugla les midecins, propres termes du m6ticuleux Mariano), 6tait de I'infant. Ainsi, dans ma piece, la Reine est coupable, suivant les idfies ad- mises. Carlos idem. Philippe II, Charles, sont jou6s par Don Juan d'Autriche. Enfin, je me conforme k I'histoire et la suis pied a pied. D'ailleurs, selon toute appa- rence, cette ceuvre sera faite sous vos yeux, car c'est la seule chose que Ton puisse faire en courant, et vous jugerez de la profondeur politique de cette ^pouvantable trag6die. II faudra des sondes bien armies de cordes pour la jauger! Deux de mes amis fouillent « Corr., p. 83. » LEt., Vol. I, p. 156. May 10, 1834. 22 THE DRAMA OF HONORf DE BALZAC avec ardeur les manuscrits historiques pour que rien ne me manque. Je veux avoir jusqu'aux plans du palais et jusqu'a I'etiquette de la cour d'Espagne sous Philippe II. 2* However ardent Balzac's research into Mariana's history and other less meticulous documents may have been at the moment, as he states in his letter, the actual work on this tragedy was delayed until he went to Russia for a few months rest. Later, he refers to the play as Philippe-le-Discret,'^^ and had evidently received sug- gestions from Mme Hanska concerning it. "Vous avez partage mes jugements sur Schiller et mes idees sur ce que je dois faire," he writes her on August 11. This sordid subject, the incestuous love of the grandson of Charles V for his step-mother, Elizabeth of Valois, had already been the matter of Schiller's Don Carlos, ^^ and Balzac evidently proposed to make this latter play his point of departure. In October, however, he had not had time to begin his tragedy ;2^ in fact, he was at that moment interested in other scenic plans together with Jules Sandeau and Arago. Moreover, his theatrical projects were causing him a great deal of trouble. "Mes essais de theatre vont mal," he writes to his sister, and he mentions the difficulties of the historical drama, which exacts stage effects unknown to him. As for comedy, he is trying to follow Moliere and finds him ''un maitre desesperant." But the real reasons for his failures seem to have been a lack of time and the difficulties which he experienced in having his plays accepted.^^ By 1837, he had begun to work on his Ecole des menages, and his historical tragedy was abandoned. It is not until the close of 1841, after the failure of Vautrin, that we again hear of a Spanish play written about the court of Philip II, and this time it is not a tragedy, but a comedy: les Res sources de QuinolaP In 1834, Balzac, correcting the proofs of la Recherche de Vahsolu, and completing le Fere Goriot, begins to plan a theatrical venture to which he refers as Marie Touchet, ''une fiere piece, ou je dresserai en pied de fiers personnages."^" Marie Touchet was actually written, not, however, by the hand of Balzac. The Count Ferdinand de ^ Ibid., p. 162. Junes, 1834. 25 IbU., p. 179. August 11, 1834. ^ 1783-7. Don Carlos, infant d'Espagne, de Schiller, traduit par Ad. Legay. Paris, an YlU.— Theatre de Schiller, traduit par Lamartelliere, Paris, 1799, 2 vol. " LEL, Vol. I, p. 198. 28 Corr., p. 200. 29 See p. 72 sf. 30 Corr., p. 198. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 23 Grammont, one of the novelist's friends, was entrusted with the task of writing the play for Balzac, and the manuscript in his hand- writing forms a part of the Lovenjoul collection.^^ In October of 1834 Balzac proposed to collaborate with Jules Sandeau and Emmanuel Arago in a five-act play to be called les Cour- tisans, a production which would pay off their debts and undoubtedly grace the boards of the Theatre-Fran fais.^^ Another play, with Sandeau's collaboration we are told, was begun at the same time, a comedy to bear the name of la Grande Mademoiselle — a story of the Duke de Lauzun, which was to have for denouement: Marie, Hre-moi mes bottes — a comedy to be launched forth into the maelstrom of Parisian melodramas P From October, 1835, until 1848 Balzac was occupied at various moments with a play which he calls Richard Cosur-d'eponge, numerous fragments of which are extant in the Chantilly collection.^* The hero of the play is a carpenter by trade, and a drunkard, the latter winning him the soubriquet, *'c(Bur-d'eponge." Begun in 1835,^^ the idea was taken up again in 1838,^^ and still not worked out by 1840, when the following lines were written in the preface to Vautrin: La v6ritable et meilleure preface de Vautrin sera done le drame de Richard Coeur- d'eponge, que radministration permet de repr^senter, afin de ne pas laisser les rats occuper exclusivement les planches si f^condes du th6a,tre de la Porte-Saint-Martin. During the first months of 1839 three plays were occupying Balzac's attention: V£,cole des menages, Richard Coeur-d'eponge, and a melodrama called la GinaP This latter play was begun in September of the previous year. Of its character we know very little. "C'est Othello retourne," the author writes to Mme Hanska:^* La Gina sera un Othello femelle. La scene est a Venise, et je veux enfin essayer du th64tre. Les propositions ne me manquent pas. On m'oflfre, d'un c6t6, vingt mille francs de prime, pour quinze actes, et j'ai les quinze actes dans la tete, mais non sur le papier. 31 Bire, H. de Balzac, p. 193. 32 LEL, Vol. I, p. 20L October 26, 1834. 33 Ihid., p. 207. December 1, 1834. 3* Lovenjoul, Autour de Honore de Balzac, p. 57. For a further discussion of Richard Coeur-d' Sponge, see Appendix. 35 Corr., p. 225. 36 LEL, Vol. I, p. 489. ''Ibid., p. 507. February 12, 1839. 38 Ibid., p. 489. September 17, 1838. 24 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC On the following day, the plans were abandoned, and the author writes characteristically: Le temps de toumer cette page, j'ai trouv6 la Gina trop difficile; il y a des raison- nements qui assassinent. Ainsi, dans Otkello, lago est le pilier qui soutient la conception, moi, je n'ai que I'intdrfet d'argent, au lieu de I'int^r^t de I'amour m^connu. J'ai trouv6 mon personnage inadmissible. Un auteur de vaudeville n'eiit pas 6t6 arr6t6 par cette difficult^." In September of 1837 Balzac began to talk of a play, the subject of which was to interest him for a period of years: "Je commence ce soir," he writes on the first day of the month, "une comedie en cinq actes, intitulee: Joseph PrudhommeJ^^^ With boldness he declares that the type belongs to Henry Monnier, but adds that a creation is not one of the requisites of theatrical success :^^ Seulement, il faut assassiner Monnier, et que mon Prudhonmie soit le seul Prud- homme. II n'a fait, lui, qu'un mis6rable vaudeville a travestissements; moi, je ferai cinq actes au Th6&tre-Francais. All this, to be sure, is little else than pure boasting. There follows in the same letter to Mme Hanska a plan of the comedy. Prudhomme is in love with the daughter of a portress, a charming girl of eighteen, entirely comme il faut, who studies at the Conserva- tory and sees before her the future of a Mile Mars. Her name is Pamela. Deceived by a fellow-student, who flees to America, the poor girl is left with a child, a boy. To bring up this child properly she marries Prudhomme without revealing to him her past life. The result of this union is a daughter. All this forms the prologue to the play, and is to be called le Mariage de Prudhomme. The real action begins eighteen years later. Prudhomme is now a prosperous banker. Pamela is a model wife, consumed with love for her boy, who, thanks to Prudhomme's generosity, has been well reared, and has lately become a .clerk in Prudhomme's establishment. His name is Adolphe. In the meanwhile Prudhomme's daughter has grown up, and has become one of the richest heiresses in Paris. Her fortune tempts an old notary who desires to make a match between his son and the young girl, but Mme Prudhomme looks with disfavor upon this. Noticing the fondness of Mme Prudhomme for Adolphe, the '• LEt.^ Vol. I. p. 489. A few summary notes of the plan of la Gina actually exist in the Lovenjoul collection. See Autour de Honor e de Balzac, p. 58. *o/6tJ.,p. 423. «/Wrf., pp. 430, 431. October 10-12, 1837. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 25 notary reports the fact to Prudhomme, and succeeds in kindling the husband's jealousy. Unable to explain her relationship to the young man, Pamela allows unjust accusations to fall upon her head, but takes her revenge by refusing to consent to the proposed marriage of her daughter. Adolphe is sent away. The return of Pamela's former lover furnishes the climax. Prudhomme, suspecting the truth, resorts to the ruse of pretending to marry brother and sister in order to assure himself of his wife's relation to Adolphe. Such, in the main, was the proposed plot of this satire on bour- geois manners. The role of Pamela was destined for Mile Mars. Balzac frankly admits that these plans were pushed forward by an urgent need of money. Furthermore, he proposed to write under an assumed name an additional piece with the same characters, a vaudeville to be called Prudhomme higame, Prudhomme est avare; il tient sa femjne fort juste, elle fait le m6nage; c'est une servante d6guis6e sous le titre d^Spouse. Elle n'a jamais €t€ au bal de rOp6ra. Sa voisine veut I'emmener et, apres s'fitre informde des habitudes conjugales de Joseph Prudhomme, les deux femmes font un mannequin qui ressemble k madame Prudhom- me, le laissent dans le lit et vont au bal masqu6. Prudhomme rentre, fait ses mono- logues, interroge sa femme qui dort; enfin, il se couche. A cinq heures sa fenrnie rentre, et il se trouve deux femmes! Vous ne devinez guere les boufltonneries que nos acteurs feront avec ce croquis, mais je vous jure que si cela prend, les Parisiens viendront voir cela cent fois. Dieu le veuille! II ne m'en content qu'une matinee, et cela pent valoir quinze mille francs. VoilH la meilleure bouflfonnerie! Mais tout depend de tant de choses! II me faut un pr^te-nom; puis, les th^Atres, c'est une sentine, et mon pied est vierge de souillure. Peut-6tre la premiere et demifere representation sera-t-elle dans cette lettre.'*^ The latter statement was true, and this is the last we hear of Prud- homme bigame. On November 7, 1837, Balzac writes to Mme Hanska that his comedy had been begun, but that he was finding difficulties with the great work which was to throw Monnier in the shade!** He writes : II faut que chaque mot soit un arrdt prononce sur les moeurs de I'dpoque. II ne faut pas choisir les sujets minces ni mesquins. II faut entrer dans le fond des choses, en sorte qu'il faut constamment embrasser r6tat social et le juger sous une forme plaisante. II y a mille choses H dire, et il ne faut dire que la bonne, en sorte qu'il y a mille pens6es rebutees sous une expression qui demeure. Ce travail me confond. II va sans dire que j'entends parler d'une ceuvre de g6nie, car pour les trente mille pieces qu'on nous a donn^es depuis quarante ans, rien n'est plus facile k faire. Je suis tres « LEL, Vol. I, p. 197. October 18 and 19, 1834. « Ibid., p. 443. 26 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC envahi par cette comedie; je ne pense qu'a cela, et chaque pensee en 6tend les diffi- cultes. Ce ne sera rien que de la faire; il faudra la faire repr^senter, et elle peut tomber.'*^ With the ardor so typical of Balzac, one detail of Prudhomme's life suggested another. He laid the plans for other plays, all dealing with the same hero. Before producing Prudhomme parvenu, he writes, he must depict Prudhomme se mariant. ''Ainsi me voila avec huit actes sur les bras au lieu de cinq."^^ In August of the next year, after his return from Corsica, Balzac writes Mme Hanska that he has been promised twenty thousand francs for le Mariage de Joseph Prudhomme on the day of the first reading, but that he has not begun the play.'*^ Balzac's interest in Henry Monnier, the Phellion of les Employes (1837) and of les Petits bourgeois (1844), author, caricaturist, play- wright and actor, is important. He was intimately acquainted with the work of this versatile genius, praising it at various times in his critical reviews.^^ Monnier, like Balzac, had served time in a notary's office, and later in the Ministry of Justice, where he became intimately acquainted with a great variety of types of government clerks and officials. In 1828 he published an album entitled Mceurs administratives dessinees d'apres nature, in which the various types of employes were caricatured. This was followed by an amusing series of pen sketches called Scenes populaires, which later grew to the extent of eight volumes. In these sketches and in a vaudeville entitled la Famille improvisie, appeared for the first time the famous character of Joseph Prudhomme, ''professeur d'ecriture, eleve de Brard et Saint-Omer, expert assermente pres les cours et tribunaux!" La Famille improvisee, a series of comic episodes had been arranged for the stage by three vaudevillists, Dupeuty, Duvert and the well- known Brazier. It was produced for the first time at the Theatre du Vaudeville on July 5, 1831.^^ The thread of this amusing caricature is briefly as follows: Adolphe has become engaged, without having seen her, to Eulalie, the daughter of a retired merchant. But at ** Ibid., pp. U6-U7. *^ Ibid., p. US. « Ibid., p. 482. *'' See especially the article on Gavarni, published in Essais et Melanges, (Euvres, Vol. XXII, p. 184; also the review of Monnier's album, Recreations, in la Caricature, May 31, 1832. (Euvres, Vol: XXII, pp. 203-4. ^* Published in la France dramatique au 19^ siecle, number 281, 1838. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 27 Paris he has fallen in love with an unknown lady, and wishes to break his pledge to Eulalie's parents. His friend, Albert, agrees to help him, and later, disguised as various members of Adolphe*s family, including the famous Prudhomme, he scandalizes the parents of Eulalie, so that they are eager to break ofiF the engagement of their daughter. But Adolphe finally recognizes Eulalie as the fair unknown whom he has seen at Paris, and the farce ends happily. Monnier played with success the role of Albert and the improvised family, advertising his advent upon the stage in his final couplet: Messieurs, jadis, dans una autre carriere, Votre indulgence a su me soutenir; J'invoque ici votre bonte premiere: Que le passe protege Tavenir! Songez, messieurs, sur ce point-la j'insiste, Lorsque je brigue un suffrage nouveau, Que devant vous c'est toujours un artiste, Et qu'il n'a fait que changer de drapeau. The piece was merely a travesty, but the character of Prudhomme became immensely popular. Who is Prudhomme? He is the symbol of the active, commercial, bourgeois spirit, rising to impor- tance through sheer blufiF and bluster; he is the type of the grandiose politician, the stupid and vulgar parvenu, loud of voice, sententious, absurdly eloquent and filled with self-importance. Balzac was enthusiastic over Monnier and his creation. His letters are filled with appreciation of the man's talent as artist and actor. That he should have boldly proposed to confiscate his Prudhomme and transfer the glory of the character to a play of his own making, at the same time referring to its author in the slighting terms cited above, seems preposterous to those who are not aware of the immense vanity and utter assurance of the man. In January of 1840 Monnier's creation was still in his mind, and at this time he audaciously pro- posed that Monnier himself should have the principal role in this new Prudhommel*^ Three years later, it is still a question of Monnier. In a letter dated February 10, 1844, Balzac writes to Mme Hanska: Hier, j'ai rencontr6 Poirson, le directeur du Gymnase, dans un omnibus, et je crois que je vais arranger avec lui la comddie de Prudhomme [en bonne fortune], en la faisant jouer par Henry Monnier. C'est une de mes deux b^quilles pour cette ann^e que cette piece-1^. J'irai la lui exposer lundi prochain, et, si cela lui va, je me mets k la faire imm^diatement, pour dtre jou6e en mars ou mai, car mars m'a 6t6 deux fois fataliso «X£^., Vol. I, p. 526. January 20, 1840. " Ibid., Vol. II, p. 304. 28 THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC The last line refers of course to the unhappy productions of Vautrin and Quinola, both played in the month of March. In March, Poirson had accepted the comedy, and rehearsals were to begin.^^ The r61e of Prudhomme was to be taken by the actor Dufour. However, the next month his Prudhomme projects were definitely abandoned,^^ when Balzac turned his attention from Monnier to Frederick Lemaitre. In the month of November, 1843, Balzac returned from Russia, the failure of Pamila Giraud fresh in his mind. The importance of his considerable dramatic activity at this time lies in the fact that he was writing solely for a special actor, Frederick Lemaitre. ^^ In 1842, Lemaitre returned to the Porte-Saint-Martin, newly opened under the directorship of the Cogniard brothers, in Ruy Bias. The same year he played a gloomy melodrama by Bouchardy, called Paris le Bohemietiy and Adolphe Dumas' Mile de la Valliere,'** Since Vautrin Balzac had been eager for Lemaitre's collaboration in a dramatic success. Richard Cceur-d'eponge had been written for him; with Monnier and Saint-Firmin he was to have had one of the principal roles in V^cole des menages.^ On November 7, 1843, he writes to Mme Hanska that he must prepare a play for Frederick Lemaitre. This play was the result of reading Cooper's Spy: Le drame que je vais faire pour Frederick aura pour base le r61e de Tespion dans le roman de Cooper; il s'adapte a merveille au talent de I'acteur, qui veut des metamor- phoses, et il y a la matiere a sentiments patriotiques qui manquent rarement leur effet sur le public. Mais le danger est dans I'intrigue secondaire, sur laquelle il f aut attacher le r6le de I'espion.^ The title of this production was to be le Heros ignore, and Lemaitre was to play the part of Harvey Birch.^^ At the beginning of the next year the play was still unwritten, nor was it ever begun, for Balzac was informed by the actor that he had already seen two productions based on the same subject — one, the work of D'Epagny, had failed 61 Ihid., pp. 314, 325. ^"-Ihid., p. 347. Monnier's successful comedy in five acts, entitled Grandeur et decadence de M. Joseph Prudhomme, written in collaboration with Gustave Vaez, was given for the first time at the Odeon on November 23, 1852, Monnier himself playing the title role. " Antome-Louis-Prosper Lemaitre (1800-1876). ^ G. Duval, Frederick Lemaitre et son temps, 1876. " G6rard was written for Lemaitre, and Duval for Monnier. See Corr., p. 326. 66 LE.t., Vol. II, p. 229. November 22, 1843. " IhU., p. 244. December 16, 1843. THE DRAMA OF HONORE DE BALZAC 29 at the Odeon.*^ In the meanwhile, Balzac was busily engaged with his comedy, Mercadet. Lemaitre was achieving a triumph with les Mysteres de Paris, and Sue's success would not let him rest. Mercadet was finished, but it suited neither the theatre for which it was destined nor the actor. On March 13, he writes to Mme Hanska: J'ai trouve le plus beau su jet bouff on pour Frederick, quelque chose d'inouI;mais je n'ai pas le temps de I'ecrire. Voici ce que c'est: peindre les Tratnards de l'Arm6efran- qaise, en 1813 et 1814, c'est-^-dire I'envers de la guerre, toutes les guenilles qui tralnent apres une armee. Faire une piece qui soit a I'epoque de Napoleon ce qu'est Don Quichotte a la chevalerie, montrer les SganareUes; les Frontins, les Mascarilles, les Figaros de Tarmee, ce qu'on appelle les Fricoteurs, les gens qui parlent guerre et qui n'ont pas vu le feu, en quinze ans, et qui sont poursuivis, ou par I'ennemi ou par la gendarmerie, de I'armee de Russie en Alsace, en passant par les pays interm6diaires qu'on peindra ! C'est une Epopee drolatique, et avec Fr^d^rick pour Achille en haillons de gloire, il y a de quoi faire bien de I'argent. . . . J'irai voir demain Gozlan; c'est le seul esprit capable d'inventer I'esprit de ces farces-li. J'ai a lui proposer aussi d'6crire une belle com^die pour le Theatre-Franfais.^^ The "belle comedie" was Mercadet. As for les Tratnards, the title is all that remains of this proposed farce. One fact concerning all this activity is evident: Balzac was disheartened by his three failures upon the stage, and by the cool reception which had greeted his J^cole des menages, still unaccepted. He was confident, however, that safety lay in the choice of a popular actor and a popular form of play, so he clung tenaciously to Lemaitre and strove to imitate his most taking roles. Moreover, he did not hesitate to solicit aid from outside sources. Consequently, we find him seeking collaboration with such varied types of genius as Gautier and Gozlan, groping about haphazard for inspiration from Fenimore Cooper or the contemporary farce. This is a period that one would like to pass over in silence, devoid of any real progress in dramatic ability, and choked with hasty, unfledged projects to win popular favor and money. Mention must be made of another curious and unfruitful dramatic venture by Balzac. In the Lovenjoul collection is found the title page, list of characters and notes of a play which read as follows: "/Wi.,p. 283. January 24, 1843. "/W