(corresponding to the D-minor scale without accidentals) and Mélisande's
song at the tower window at the beginning of the third act.

* * * * *

It remains only to be said, by way of conclusion to this brief survey,
that, for those who are disposed to open their sensibilities to the
appeal of this music, its high and haunting beauty must exert an
increasing sway over the heart and the imagination. It is making no
excessive or invidious claim for it to assert that, after one has truly
savored its quality, other music, transcendent though it may
demonstrably be, seems a little coarse-fibred, a little otiose, a
little--as Jules Laforgue might have said--_quotidienne_. But, however
it may come to be ranked, there are few, I think, who will not recognize
here an accent that is personal and unique, a peculiar ecstasy, a
pervading and influential magic.




II

THE PLAY

ITS QUALITIES


Maurice Maeterlinck's _Pelléas et Mélisande_, published in 1892, stands
fifth in the chronological order of his dramatic works. It was preceded
by _La Princesse Maleine_ (1889); _L'Intruse_, _Les Aveugles_ (1890);