were called, when men quarrelled by the book, and arranged a rencontre according to the rules of logic. This fantastic humour, which, so early as the age of Shakspeare, and Beaumont and Fletcher, had been successfully ridiculed on the English stage, was probably rather too antiquated to be the subject of satire on that of Paris, in the beginning of the 18th century. The Point of Honour was only twice represented.

In 1707, Don Cæsar Ursin, a comedy, translated by Le Sage from the Spanish of Calderon, was acted and condemned at the Théâtre François. To make the author some amends, the same audience received, with the most marked applause, the lively farce entitled Crispin rival de son Maître, which Garrick introduced upon the English stage under the title of Neck or Nothing. It is uncommon for a dramatic author to be applauded and condemned for two different pieces in the same day; but Le Sage's destiny was even still more whimsical. Don Cæsar, we have said, was hissed in the city, and Crispin applauded. At a representation before the court, the judgment was reversed-the play was applauded, and the farce condemned without mercy. Time has confirmed the judgment of the Parisians, and annulled that of Versailles.

Le Sage made yet another essay on the regular stage, with his comedy of Turcaret, in which he has painted the odious yet ridiculous character of a financier, risen from the lowest order of society by tricks and usury, prodigal of his newly acquired wealth upon a false and extravagant mistress of quality, and refusing to contribute even to relieve

the extreme necessity of his wife and near relations. As men of business, and a class so wealthy, the financiers have always possessed interest at court, and that interest seems to have been exerted with success to prevent so odious a personification of their body from appearing on the stage. The embargo was removed by an order of Monseigneur, dated 15th October, 1708. While the play was yet in his portfolio, Le Sage had an opportunity to show how little his temper was that of a courtier. He had been pressed to read his manuscript comedy at the Hotel de Bouillon, at the hour of noon, but was detained till two o'clock by the necessity of attending the decision of a lawsuit in which he was deeply interested. When he at length appeared, and endeavoured to plead his excuse, the Duchess of Bouillon received his apology with coldness, haughtily remarking, he had made the company lose two hours in waiting for his arrival." It is easy to make up the loss, madam," replied Le Sage; "I will not read my comedy, and you will thus regain the lost time." He left the hotel, and could never be prevailed on to return thither

Turcaret was acted, and was successful, in spite of the cabal formed against it by the exertions of those concerned in the finances. The author, in

1 ["The French author who, in drawing character, approached the nearest to Molière, was perhaps Le Sage, in his Turcaret, which, however, is composed of many reminiscences from his great master. Both, indeed, had the common defect of painting manners, not characters, and, consequently, of producing comedies of classes, not of individuals. But this is a defect which the French public would not even perceive;

imitation of Molière, added a sort of dramatic criticism, in which he defended the piece against the censures which had been passed against it. The speakers in this critical interlude were Don Cleofas and the Diable Boiteux. They appeared on the stage as unseen spectators of the representation of Turcaret, and spoke between the acts, like the assistants in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour; the tendency of the dialogue being to exult in the author's success, and ridicule the cabal by which it had been assailed. We learn, in the course of their conversation, that besides all the friends of the author, and all his friends' friends, a guard of the police was necessary to restrain the zeal of the clerks and dependents of the financial department. Asmodeus maintains his character as a satirist, and, pointing out to Don Cleofas a violent debate betwixt the friends and enemies of the piece, observes, that as it became warm, the one party spoke worse of the piece than they thought, and the other thought less good of it than they uttered.

Turcaret seems the only original piece which Le Sage composed on the plan of the French regular comedy; and though it had great poignancy of satire, the principal character on which the whole turns, is almost too worthless and too wicked to be ridiculous, or truly comic. Indeed Turcaret is rendered so odious, that revenge was said to have held the pallet when the colours were mixed; and there was an unauthorized story at one time curand we are not aware that any critics of that nation have made the remark."-Quarterly Review, July, 1823.]

rent, that Le Sage, deprived by a financier of a place in the revenue, had written this dramatic satire to be revenged upon the whole body of Maltôtiers. The author, probably, was not without some offers of preferment, for he used to speak to his son of having refused situations in which others became rich, but where his conscience must have kept him poor-expressions too vague for a biographer to found any thing upon them, yet which seem to exclude the idea of his having held any employment under a farmer-general of the revenues. His connexion with the Théâtre François, on which alone such regular pieces can be presented, was soon afterwards broken off. Le Sage had offered to them, in 1708, a small piece, in one act, called La Tontine; it was not acted until 1732; and though the cause is not precisely known, it is obvious that the rejection gave much offence to the author. Le Sage was also much provoked at the airs of superiority assumed by the performers towards the authors, and he has recorded his revenge by the unfavourable and ridiculous colours in which he has represented the theatrical profession in his

romance.

The truth seems to be, that his former attempts were unsuccessful, because they were founded upon the Spanish plan of intrigue, in incident and situation, and were not therefore much valued by the Parisians, whom the excellent Molière had accustomed to pieces of character and sentiment. Turcaret was indeed more in the taste of the age, and was accordingly better relished; but the scenes hang so loosely together, and the plot possesses so

little interest of any kind, that it may be termed rather a dramatic satire than a proper comedy. On the whole, Le Sage's failure as a comic poet will not excite the surprise of those who may have patience to peruse his plays.

For the sake of connexion, we may trace Le Sage's dramatic career to a period with the greater brevity, that it contains but little to interest the reader. From the service of the established National Theatre, Le Sage transferred his pen to those minor establishments, termed De la Foire, which did not pretend, and, indeed, were not permitted, to offer to the public regular dramas, but only to act vaudevilles, or small light interludes set to music, and where the music was supposed to be the principal attraction.

These subordinate theatres were a refinement upon the puppet-shows and such like exhibitions, which used to be shown during the two great Fairs of St Laurence and St Germain; and it was under this colour that the manager and actors of the Foire endeavoured to elude the monopoly enjoyed by the Théâtre François, and were alternately indulged or restricted in their privileges, as they were able to find protection at court. The sort of pieces represented at the Foire, came at length to bear the name of the Comic Opera, of which Le Sage was the soul. He composed, either entirely, or with the assistance of his friends, Dominique and Fuselier, no less than a hundred and upwards of these interludes, farces, and light pieces, which cost little effort to so inventive a genius, and which floated or sunk as popular opinion willed it, never