EUGÈNE LABICHE

Tue story of the life of Labiche is tho story of his works. All, of public interest, that lies outaide of them is eusily told, Labiche was born at Puris in 1815, He studied law, but does not seem to have entered upon the practice of that profession. At twenty Years of age he began his career as a literary man by the publication of some short stories, and in 1838 he made his début as a writer of comedy, a department of letters which he was destined to enrich and adorn, in the play M. de Coyllin. For nearly fu:ty yeurs from this dute he continued to work unceasingly, sometimes in collaboration with others, on that long series of comedies which were the delight of his contemporaries, Ii 1877 his last Play, la Clef, was produced, Some time after, his friend Augier, the distinguished dramatist, visiting him in his country home at Sologne, persuaded him'to publish an edition of a selection of his plays. The edition appeared in 1879 in ten volumes, with a preface by Augier, from which we learn that it was with great difficulty that the consent of Labiche was obtained for the publication of his comedies as literature, In his modesty he could not believe that ces farces-là sont des œuvres, But the rest of the world was of another mind ; the edition met with great success, and in the following year, 1880, Labiche was elected à member of the Académie, the crowning honour of a literary career in France. Another detail of his life is not to be forgotten. In 1870, when France was engaged in the deadly str aggle with Prussia, he raised a company of volunteers in his country district of Sologne to help in defending his native land. He died in 1888.

The plays of Labiche are over a hundred in number, of which about fifty are published in the edition of 1879. Amongst the best known of them are the following : Embrassons-nous, Folleville !, 1850; un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie, 1851 ; le Misanthrope et l'Auvergnat, 1852 ; le Voyage de monsieur Perrichon, 1860 ; {a Sensitive, 1860 ; a Poudre aux Yeux, 1861; Les Petits Oiseaux, 1862; la Cagnotte, 1864 ; Moi, 1864 ; la Grammaire, 1867. All of the plays of Labiche‘ belong to the class of light Comedy, and many of them are the masterpieces of

iv EUGÈNE LABICHE.

their class. They are all irresistibly funny, and in the most of them the author has succeedèd in steering clear of irreverence, vulgarity and buffoonery, the rocks on which writers of comedy s0 frequently

«make shipwreck. It is for the most part good, healthy, clean fun that is offered us, although now and then the risqué situation is displeasing. But even in this respect, Labiche might be said to be immaculate, compared with the majority of vaudeville writers since his time. Nor does the fun of Labiche degenerate into bitter satire. He has in great abundance what Frenchmen call the quality of bonhomie. Never does he forget his kindliness. And that not because he cannot see the meanness and pettiness of humanity. Indeed, no one has a keener eye for that which is false a::d low among men, but he is more interested in the humorous, mirth-provoking side of things than in that which is base and ignoble.

In a large number of cases the persons made fun of by Labiche belong to the bourgeois class, —that good, substantial, matter-of-fact middle-class, to which he himself belonged, and from which so much that is worthy has come. But the ridicule is kindly. You are almost made to sympathise with the bourgeois. He, poor fellow, is indeed merely the victim of circumstances. It is no fault of his that he is born in an age in which people are crazy about antiquarianism, correctness in spelling or the management of public affairs.

There is one reproach which might be brought against the plays of Labiche, and that is, that his plots and situations are frequently unnatural and extravagant. Nobody knew it better than he. But he would have justified himself by saying that the conventions of the stage permitted in the vaudeville such deviations from the natural and probable as he was guilty of. So long as men are able to accept the clever artifices of our author as not too fantastic, they will read and hear with enjoyment aud profit the clever, droll, pithy, sparkling things he so lavishly introduces into the conversation of his characters. j