292 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



of Racine or the Misanthrope of Moliere, nor with many another of 

 the ornaments of the French drama, but it is the play which has claimed 

 the attention of the greatest emotional actresses at home and abroad. 

 It is as well known in Germany and Italy as it is in France. In their 

 tours of the United States, it is still the piece de resistance of Sarah 

 Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse. The story is so well known that it 

 matters little what language it is played in. In the United States it 

 was in Camille that Mme. Modjeska first appeared in 1877. Miss 

 Clara Morris was for years a famous Camille. Among the most recent 

 interpreters of the role are Miss Olga Nethersole and Miss Margaret 

 Anglin. In many quarters Camille has doubtless run its course. The 

 critics already pronounce it old fashioned and sentimental, as it doubt- 

 less is in parts, but the emotional opportunities which it offers, are 

 likely to appeal to leading ladies for a long time to come. It still com- 

 pels a tribute of tears from the women in the matinee audiences, and 

 the success of an emotional actress or an emotional play is very largely 

 measured in terms of tears. 



Following Camille Alexandre Dumas the younger (1824-95) wrote 

 many plays with a purpose, several of which may still be remembered 

 by the present generation of playgoers. In 1893 Le demimonde (1855) 

 was produced in the United States in two versions, The Crust of Society 

 and The Fringe of Society. Mr. John Drew appeared for a time in 

 The Squire of Dames (L'ami des femmes, 1864), and Dumas' last play, 

 Francillon, from the year 1887 was produced by Mrs. Potter under the 

 title, A Wife's Peril. But for the past ten years these plays have not 

 been before the public. They ran their course as novelties, but now 

 seem as remote as The Danicheffs (1875), a powerful and successful 

 drama in which Dumas collaborated, and which in the 70's was one 

 of the record-breaking successes of the old Union Square Theater in 

 New York. On the whole, then, Alexandre Dumas the younger is, 

 from our present point of view, a man of one play. But Camille has 

 made him immortal. 



The best-known French name to the present day theater-goers in 

 this country is that of Victorien Sardou (1 831-1908), whose recent death 

 the French are still mourning. His first appearance as a dramatist was 



