presence was debarred!

Some idea of the criticism uttered on this comedy may be gained from
the fact that out of the fifty newspapers, all of which for the last
twenty years have uttered over the unsuccessful playwright the
hackneyed phrase, "the play is the work of a clever man who will some
day take his revenge," not one employed it in speaking of _The
Resources of Quinola_, which they were unanimous in consigning to
oblivion. This result has settled the ambition of the author.

Certain persons, whose good auguries the author had done nothing to
call forth, encouraged from the outset this dramatic venture, and thus
showed themselves less critical than unkind; but the author counts
such miscalculations as blessings in disguise, for the loss of false
friends is the best school of experience. Nor is it less a pleasure
than a duty thus publicly to thank the friends, like M. Leon Gozlan,
who have remained faithful, towards whom the author has contracted a
debt of gratitude; like M. Victor Hugo, who protested, so to speak,
against the public verdict at the first representation, by returning
to witness the second; like M. de Lamartine and Madame de Girardin,
who stuck to their first opinion, in spite of the general public
reprobation of the piece. The approval of such persons as these would
be consoling in any disaster.

LAGNY, 2 April, 1842.



PERSONS OF THE PROLOGUE