and its value. What M. Dreyfus contributed himself was little more than
a running commentary on the correspondence that he had collected. This
commentary was characteristically clever, brisk, bright and amusing; but
its interest was partly personal, partly local, and partly contemporary.
The interest of the letters themselves is permanent; and this is the
reason why it has seemed advisable to select the most significant of
them and to present them here unincumbered by the less useful remarks of
the lecturer.

Émile Augier (1820-1889) disputes with Alexandre Dumas the foremost
place among the French dramatists of the second half of the nineteenth
century. The 'Gendre de M. Poirier' (which he wrote in collaboration
with Jules Sandeau) is the masterpiece of modern comedy, a worthy
successor to the 'Tartuffe' of Molière and the 'Marriage of Figaro' of
Beaumarchais.

Théodore de Banville (1823-1891) was a poet rather than a playwright.
Altho he composed half-a-dozen little pieces in verse, the only one of
his dramatic efforts which really succeeded in establishing itself on
the stage, was 'Gringoire,' a one-act comedy in prose; and this met with
a more fortunate fate than its more fantastic companions only because
Banville revised and strengthened his plot in accordance with the
skilful suggestions of Coquelin, who "created" the part of the starving
poet.

Adolphe Dennery (1811-1899) was the most adroit and fertile of
melodramatists in the midyears of the nineteenth century. Perhaps his
best play was 'Don César de Bazan'; and perhaps his most popular play
was the 'Two Orphans.'