IV INTRODUCTION

La Haine, \%T^y Divorçons, i^^o, Fédora, i^^2, La Tosca, 1887, Thermidor, \Z^\, Madame Sans-Gêne, \%^'^, Robespierre, 1899, Dante, 1903, La Sorcière, 1903.1

Some of these, and others, are well known in English versions ; in fact, Robespierre and Dante were written for Henry Irving, and first performed in English. An English adaptation of Les Pattes de Mouche, under the name of "A Scrap of Paper," was for many years popular on the American stage, being admirably rendered by Augustin Daly's company, and is still a great favorite in amateur dramatics. It is also played in Germany under the title of " Der Letzte Brief."

S ardours reputation came quickly, and his career was most brilliant. His fertility of production is surprising, but there are few elements of originality in his work; subjects are borrowed from everywhere in his broad reading, and the author has been accused of sometimes borrowing more than is allowable. In 1 883 he defended himself against the charge of plagiarism in a book which he called Mes Plagiats, However, his best plays are really formed of bits gathered here and there, skillfully patched together and adorned with the brilliant dialogue which he handled so gracefully. In this lies his success, in this clever manipulation of unexpected incidents, the wit of the speeches, the striking caricature of human nature, and finally in the creation of a type new to the French stage, as exemplified in Suzanne in Les Pattes de Mouche, His genius was officially rewarded in 1878 by his election to the Académie Française.

His fertility is shown not only in the number of his plays, but in their variety as weU. The social comedies, such as Nos Intimes and Les Pattes de Mouche, the success of which depends rather upon the sparkling dialogue and the ingenious treatment of a number of amusing incidents than upon any deep study of

1 A neariy complete list of his works, as well as of the most important books and articles on Sardou, wiU be found in Hugo P. Thieme, Guide Bibliographique de la Littérature Française de 1800 à içob. Paris, H. Welter, 1907.

ÎNTRODtJCnON V

character or indeed any originality of plot, were followed by dramas filled with harrowing situations and depicting to excess the working of strong emotions, as for example Fedora and La Tosca, The dramas based on historical subjects, which began to appear during this period, show how Sardou's mastery of strong situations brought into play the minutest details of stagesetting, until in his last plays the spectacular part became of the utmost importance. Mme. Sarah Bernhardt has given in these violent dramas some of her most effective work, while Puccini has found in them themes available for a modem operatic setting.

In his «'French Dramatists of the Nineteenth Century" Professor Brander Matthews calls Les Pattes de Mouche "perhaps the cleverest of all M. Sardou's clever comedies." The incident around which much of the action revolves was suggested by one of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, ««The Purloined Letter," published in 1854, which was translated into French by Baudelaire in 1856. Poe has always been remarkably popular in France, and the first translation of his poems and stories was foUowed by many tales which show the imprint of his peculiar genius. Sardou was quick to see the dramatic possibilities in the concealment of a letter in a spot so open to the searcher that he would naturally disregard it; it is this suggestion that Sardou found in Poe. One of the most charming original features of the play is the character of Suzanne, in the portrayal of which the best phase of his genius is seen. Scarcely a young girl (she is ** bordering on thirty"), and decidedly not that kind of girl that the French call ingénue^ she combines the poise and discrimination of the quick-witted society woman with the grace and ardor of an imspoiled maiden. The other characters are frank caricatures, more or less broadly drawn, yet with an element of truth about them that makes them all human. The plot would be improbable, if Sardou*s skill did not keep the reader's attention so concentrated on details that he has no time to analyze the plot as a whole.