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CINN & COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS . BOSTON • U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

Henri Meilhac lived in Paris ail his life, from 1831 to 1897. He spent his youth, before he set about making books himself, as a bookseller's clerk ; and at an early âge he was writing humorous sketches for the " Journal pour rire." A little later he turned his attention to the stage, where, after a few failures, he achieved great success with a type of light and graceful comedy of which "Frou-frou," written in collaboration with Halévy, is the best-known example. He is said to have furnished the exubérant humor to the partnership, and Halévy the chastening and refining élément. He is little known except as a playwright.

The same is not true of Ludovic Halévy^ a brilliant French Jew, and the son of a well-known poet. Halévy was three years younger than his collaborator, and began life as an officiai in the civil service, always taking a keen interest in political affairs, as witness his valuable "Notes et Souvenirs,'* published after his active literary life was over. In 1881 he left Meilhac and the field of dramatic composition, and delighted the reading public with a pure and wholesome little romance, " L'Abbé Constantin," which gained him admission to the French Academy three years later — four years before his excoUaborator reached that goal of every French littérateur.

The career of Eugène Marin Labiche '^'^ unique and interesting, He studied , aiX-^x^'a^x^'à'^^^'^'^^

INTRODUCTION

a reporter, and then a writer of frivolous farces, with no other aim than to amuse the frothy French populace. This remained for many years his sole purpose, as he produced plays with the rapidity of a Scribe and reaped the golden meed of a popular writer, until a peculiar expérience warned him that ail things have an end. He was one day visiting the composer who was to provide the music for one of his operettas, when he heard the latter refuse the door to poor old Scribe himself. "I don't want to work with his stuff," said the man of music, "the old fellow is played out." A little later, in the full tide of popularity, Labiche withdrew to his country estate and gave up writing, lest he too should one day find himself "played out." Then came his friend Augier, and informed him that his farces were literature and must be published in a single collection. The idea that he was making "literature" seemed never to have occurred to the jovial playwright, but he agreed to the publication of a complète édition of his plays ; and the literary world has confirmed Augier's judgment. With ail his fantastic merriment — as utterly purposeless at first glance as that of our own Bill Nye, for example — he sees deeply, and portrays vividly. Like the writers mentioned above, he worked largely with others, although the play given in this volume was written by himself alone. His best-known comédies are "Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie" and "Le Voyage de M. Perrichon." His remarkable facility in the conception of comic situations has made him an inexhaustible mine for the lesser dramatic writers. The celebrated English farce " Box and Cox" is only an adaptation of one of his incidents. He was made a member of the Academy in 1880.

jBrȉst-Marie d*Hervilly^ born in Paris in 1839, is one of tAe most versatile members of a versatile Taee. X c\n\1

INTRODUCTION

engineer by profession, and a very good one, he has written poems, " Les Baisers," " Le Harem," etc. ; novels, " Les Ames des femmes," "L'Homme jaune"; plays, "Le Malade réel," "Molière en prison." His very simple and obvions manner of writing makes his work especially valuable for students of the language.

If it is considered advisable to read the foUowing plays in the order of their difficulty, a start should be made with the last one. The order observed in this volume is rather that of their literary importance.

I wish to acknowledge the assistance in the préparation of the exercises, given me by my friend Mr. A. F. Parrott, of the High School of Commerce, New York City.