290 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



The Two Orphans. Times may have changed and the taste of the 

 public may have experienced many different phases since 1848, but 

 Mr. O'Neill still possesses the art to charm in Monte Christo. A few 

 years ago another of Dumas' novels, turned into a play, experienced 

 a new lease of life — The Three Guardsmen (1844) in various versions 

 was given all over the country. Of the better-known actors identified 

 with this revival were Mr. E. H. Sothern in America and Mrs. Potter 

 in London. 



Simultaneously with Victor Hugo and Dumas, a very prolific author 

 was at work who has furnished the English stage with several plays. 

 This was Eugene Scribe (1791-1861). His most famous play is, per- 

 haps, Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849), originally written for Rachel, which 

 has long been a favorite one with emotional actresses of all nations. 

 Mme. Bernhardt and Mme. Modjeska, to mention only two, are among 

 the most distinguished representatives of the heroine seen in this country. 

 Miss Olga Nethersole is the most recent interpreter of the role. Another 

 play of Scribe, La bataille de dames (1851), in the admirable transla- 

 tion of Charles Reade, was in the repertory of Mme. Modjeska some 

 six or seven years ago. Scribe was also the author of many light and 

 grand-opera librettos, many of which have been sung in English. The 

 best known of these operas are Flotow's Martha (1847), Auber's Fra 

 Diavolo (1830), and Crown Diamonds (1831), Halevy's The Jewess 

 (1855), Donizetti's Elixir of Love (1832), and Meyerbeer's Robert the 

 Devil (1831), The Huguenots (1836), The Prophet (1849) and UAfri- 

 caine (1864). Scribe wrote over four hundred dramatic pieces, and it 

 is probable that the germs of these are to be found scattered throughout 

 the dramatic literature of many nations. Much of his work is of very 

 slight value, even if he was a member of the Academy, but taken together, 

 it entitles him to an important place in the development of the French 

 drama. His apparently trivial comedie-vaudevilles, like The Loan of 

 a Lover, are still full of quaint, old-fashioned charm, when given, as 

 they often are, by amateur dramatic societies. 



We now come to a dramatic author whose work is practically unknown 

 on the American stage, Emile Augier (1820-89). His Gendre de M. 

 Poirier (1855) is, to be sure, known to many a student of French in 



