288 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



of it in the English morality play Everyman, of the same period, which 

 has been so splendidly given in the past few years by the Ben Greet 

 Players. 



The real French drama is regarded as beginning with the year 1552, 

 when Jodelle wrote his Cleopatre, the first classic French tragedy, a 

 work which naturally met with the approval of the author's associates 

 in the Pleiade. Jodelle's Cleopatre, however, is only a literary milestone, 

 and the Egyptian queen's appearance on the American stage by way 

 of France did not take place until about twenty years ago in Sardou's 

 drama of that name (1890). 



Passing on from 1552, the next important date in the development 

 of the French drama is 1636, the year of Corneille's Cid, one of the 

 glories of French literature, though it in no way affects our twentieth- 

 century English stage. The year 1636 merely marks in France the 

 beginning of the hard-and-fast application of the rule of the three 

 unities, a rule which lasted practically unchallenged up to the date 

 of Victor Hugo's Hernani (1827). 



For nearly two hundred years, during the literary activity of Moliere, 

 Corneille, Racine and Voltaire, all well-known names in the history of 

 the world's literature, the French classic drama flourished, and yet we 

 find no trace of it in England or the United States at the present time. 

 If one reads carefully the latest copy of the New York Dramatic Mirror 

 he will look in vain for the French drama of the age of Louis XIV in the 

 repertory of England, the United States, Australia and South Africa. 

 One recent exception, however, should be noted. In the season of 

 1905-6 the late Richard Mansfield made a notable production of 

 Moliere's Misanthrope (1666). The performances of this piece were, 

 however, limited to a few of the larger cities where there is a cultivated 

 public. Mr. Mansfield himself regarded it more as a literary and artistic 

 offering than as a response to a popular demand. His attitude was 

 quite that of the Donald Robertson Players of Chicago, who under the 

 auspices of the Chicago Art Institute are now producing periodically 

 before select audiences the masterpieces of the world's dramatic litera- 

 ture in English translation, among others the works of Moliere, and 

 in view of the amazing brilliancy and vitality of Moliere's plays, it 



