INTRODUCTION

Alexandre Dvm as ^Is^ is the most purposeful, forcefiil, and serious of the modem French dramatists. He was the son of the noted novelist, Alexandre Dumas^ whom he approached in talent and originality^ while he greatly excelled him in realistic observation and moral eamestness. The frivolities of his early manhood gave him a rich fiind of expérience, without permanently weakening his character, and they gave him also a spur to genius

1 Born 1824, died 1895. The dates of his principal plays are : La Danu aux camélias, 1852 ; Diane de Lys, 1853 ; Le Demi-monde, 1855 ; La Question d'argent, 1857 ; Le Fils naturel, 1858 ; Le Père prodigue, 1859 ; L'Ami des femmes, 1864 ; Les Idées de Madame Auàray, 1867 ; La Visite de noces, 1871 ; La Princesse Georges, 1871 ; La Femme de Claude, 1873 ; Monsieur Alphonse, 1873 ; L* Etrangère, 1876; La Princesse de Bagdad, 1881; Denise, 1885; Francillon, 1887. He had also a share in La Supplice d'une femme, 1865, and in Des Danicheffs, 1876. His novel, L'Affaire Clemenceau (1867), was dramatised by Artois in 1887. Criticism of Dumas //r as a dramatist may be found in Doumic, Portraits d'écrivains; Bourget, Essais de psychologie contemporaine; Lacour, Trois théâtres; Sarrazin, Dos moderne Drama der Franzosen ; Brander Matthews, French Dramatists, and the editor's Modem French LUeraiure, pp. 370-379, from which parts of the présent introduction are taken.

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in the form of debts, which he could pay only by his pen. He set to work with prompt décision, sold his expérience to the world in La Dame aux camélias (1848), and by the dramatization of this novel in 1852 set up one of the chief milestones in the history of the French stage.

This drama marks a theatrical révolution as profound and more lasting than that so pompously heralded in Hugo's Hernani, It is the beginning of the realistic study of social problems, which has changed the face of the modem drama. Hère Dumas combined the keen insight of Balzac with that instinct for dramatic présentation that had given Scribe his long prééminence. He saw that realism to be successful on the stage must be treated conventionally and logically. He developed ail his pièces in strict séquence, presenting social conditions and characters not with the theoretic realism of the Naturalists, but yet with a reality that the Romanticists had not desired, nor the contemporary Neoclassicists approached.

In its ethics, the Lady with the Camélias left much to be desired, but Dumas gradually shifted his position to an almost puritanic sternness. Ail the dramas that foUow Diane de Lys are written with a purpose, and to prove some social thesis, often, it must be confessed, a paradoxical one. The fundamental aim of almost ail his pièces, though not of the one before us hère, is to [iv]

Introduction S*-

eradicate from the youth of France roosantic sentiment and chivalrous passion, and so to emancipate the coming génération for what he conceives to be a more in* dépendent, virile development. This is the avowed purpose of VAtni des femmes^ Le Detnùmondey Um Visite de nocesj La Princesse Georges^ La Femme de Claude^ and D Étrangère; it is présent though masked in Le Fils naturel and Le Père prodigue ; it oolors aiso Les Idées de Madame Aubray and Monsieur Alphonse^ and it casts a ûdnt shadow on the later comédies also. Into an analysis of thèse dramatic sermons it is not necessary to enter hère. AU of them lack classic dignity, ail of them show a curions blending of prophétie sternness and sardonic cynicism. They are ail witty, but from first to last their wit is that of the Society they représenta keen but not kindly. Their language, too, is that of modem society, of the club and the ballroom. In the earlier plays there are occasional errors of diction, and to the last there is a free use of words more familiar than académie. But his style is far firom commonplace. It has wonderful individuality, remarkable concision and clearness. It is as one of his critics has said, ^'all muscles, nerves, and action.^^ And in substance as well as manner he never quite forgets the artist, while he poses as the shepherd ; of soûls. But this didactic spirit has had the effect of making him at once more and less a realistic dramatist

than Augier — more if by realism we mean the daring that seeks veils. in order to rend them, that has not only the courage but the yeaming to "tell it ail," less if by realism we mean the présentation of nature in its rounded completeness. His vision is intense, sometimes even apocalyptic. He does not see life in its true perspective, and falls at times into sophistical déclamation. Yet no dramatist of modem France stirs and holds the thought of an audience as he. None has provoked more opposition, and perhaps none has attracted more eager attention.

La Question d'^argent deals with the influence of money on modem society and on modem morals. The pursuit of wealth is as old as the idea of property, but democracy has given it new motives and an added impulse. One need only contrast Le Sage's Turcaret with Augier's Estrigaud in Lions et renard^ or with Dumas' Rigaud in this drama to see how the Révolution has widened the social sphère of the successful financier. But great wealth is rarely rapidly accumulated without some blunting of the délicate sensé of honor that is the pride of an old aristocracy, as well as of the sturdy probity that is the strength of national character. If this blunting produces dishonesty the law steps in and solves the question d'^argent, but we know that such a weakened moral sensé often coexists with gênerons sentiments, and even with a scrupulous conformity to an [vi]

Introduction 8«-

ethical code of its own devising. There is proverbially <<honor among thieves,** and Jean Rigaud is much better than that.^ He is a self-made man, a wealthy young speculator, far more proud than ashamed of his lowly parentage. He lacks good breeding and good taste; he has not refîned social instincts. But he is kindly, gênerons, honest too in his way, though it is not the way of those with whom this drama brings him in contact. Yet the comparison is not whoUy to their advantage. The countess has suiïered her property to be squandered for lack of business sensé, Roncourt has saved a simulacrum of family honor by reducing his daughter to poverty, René prefers idle mediocrity to business activity, and is spurred to action at last, not by generous ambition, but by a woman^s reason, while the selfish bourgeois Durieu has the vices of a speculator without his courage, is cautions in petty things, foolishly venturesome in great ones, with a tainted sensé of honor that has need to be cured by the simple probity of the wife he aiïects to despise. Even Cayolle, who combines administrative success with probity of the antique type, rouses esteem rather than admiration. We cannot accept without reserve the scruples of Éliza, who would like to marry for love,

1 Some contemporaries daimed that he was studied from the speculator Mirés, then of scandalous notoriety, but Dumas denied both the resemblance and the intention, [vil]

but like a dutiful girl is willing to please her ÙLtheVy and yet bas ber sensé of bonor shocked by ber fiancées proposai to give ber a dowry in a way that must bave seemed to bim thougbtful prudence and generous courtesy.^ Nor can we beartily sympatbize witb tbe otber young lady of tbe drama, at least from an Anglo- Saxon point of view, thougb in Matbilde we bave wbat Dumas would perhaps regard as tbe best type of tbe demoiselle à marier^ generous, not too emotional, capable of întellectual sympatby wbere ber feelings are also engaged, keen in judgment, bousewifely, not ill dis^ posed to marry ber parents^ cboice, nor likely to be unbappy in doing so, perbaps as bigb-minded a girl as could be expected to grow up in an atmospbere of materialism among people wbose tbougbts are mainly bent on tbe question d"^ argent.

Perhaps no small part of tbe interest of tbis play lies in tbe fact tbat it is a question and not an answer. There is no cbaracter tbat is not partly sympatbetic, none of wbose world-wisdom we are quite sure. Like ail of Dumas^ plays it sets us tbinking, but more tban most of tbem it sets us smiling too. We are bere in tbe realm of pure comedy, witb no toucb of melodrama. Our interest tbroughout tbe play bas been so entirely

1 It is only just to add, however, that a single verbal change and a few omitted speeches, in ail about a half-page, affect somewhat the relative position of Eliza and her admirers. [viii]

Introduction ^

that of character that the sudden retura of Jean at the close, artistîcally managed as it is, and necessary to the full exhibition of his nature, diverts our interest rather than increases it. From this point of view, as a comedy, La Question d'^argent takes the highest rank among Dumas^ works, while as a drama it is less powerful than Le Demi-monde^ that had preceded it, and than several plays that foUowed. But for aU that it is the comedy that is most pleasant to read, and from the point of view of American life perhaps the most profitable also.

Benjamin W, Wells.