ion belong to
you; but what I am within myself is mine alone.

* * * * *

I have taken leave of everything here; of my quiet room, of my summer
bench; for I know not whether I shall ever return. And if I do, who
knows but what everything may have become strange to me?

* * * * *

(Last page written in pencil.)--It is my wish that when I am dead, I may
be wrapped in a simple linen cloth, placed in a rough unplaned coffin,
and buried under the apple-tree, on the road that leads to my paternal
mansion. I desire that my brother and other relatives may be apprised of
my death at once, and that they shall not disturb my grave by
the wayside.

No stone, no name, is to mark my grave.

EMILE AUGIER

(1820-1889)

As an observer of society, a satirist, and a painter of types and
characters of modern life, Emile Augier ranks among the greatest French
dramatists of this century. Critics consider him in the line of direct
descent from Moliere and Beaumarchais. His collected works ('Theatre
Complet') number twenty-seven plays, of which nine are in verse. Eight
of these were written with a literary partner. Three are now called
classics: 'Le Gendre de M. Poirier' (M. Poirier's Son-in-Law),
'L'Aventuriere' (The Adventuress), and 'Fils de Giboyer' (Giboyer's
Boy). 'Le Gendre de M. Poirier' was written with Jules Sandeau, but the
admirers of Augier have proved by internal evidence that his share in
its composition was the greater. It is a comedy of manners based on the
old antagonism between vulgar ignorant energy and ability on the one
side, and lazy empty birth and breeding on the other; embodied in
Poirier, a wealthy shopkeeper, and M. de Presles, his son-in-law, an
impoverished nobleman. Guillaume Victor Emile Augier was born in
Valence, France, September 17th, 1820, and was intended for the law; but
inheriting literary tastes from his grandfather, Pigault Lebrun the
romance writer, he devoted himself to letters. When his first play, 'La
Cigue' (The Hemlock),--in the preface to which he defended his
grandfather's memory,--was presented at the Odeon in 1844, it made the
author famous. Theophile Gautier describes it at length in Vol. iii. of
his 'Art Dramatique,' and compares it to Shakespeare's 'Timon of
Athens.' It is a classic play, and the hero closes his career by a
draught of hemlock.

Augier's works are:--'Un Homme de Bien' (A Good Man); 'L'Aventuri