little hour. Leandre, who has no notion of being
married, says, "Le ciel n'est pas plus pur que mes intentions." And the
artless Colombine replies, "Alors marions-nous!" To marry Colombine
without a dowry forms, as a modern novelist says, "no part of Leandre's
profligate scheme of pleasure." There is a sort of treble intrigue.
Orgon wants to give away Colombine dowerless, Leandre to escape from the
whole transaction, and Colombine to secure her _dot_ and her husband. The
strength of the piece is the brisk action in the scene when Leandre
protests that he can't rob Orgon of his only daughter, and Orgon insists
that he can refuse nothing except his ducats to so charming a son-in-law.
The play is redeemed from sordidness by the costumes. Leandre is dressed
in the attire of Watteau's "L'Indifferent" in the Louvre, and wears a
diamond-hilted sword. The lady who plays the part of Colombine may
select (delightful privilege!) the prettiest dress in Watteau's
collection.

This love of the glitter of the stage is very characteristic of De
Banville. In his _Deidamie_ (Odeon, Nov. 18th, 1876) the players who
took the roles of Thetis, Achilles, Odysseus, Deidamia, and the rest,
were accoutred in semi-barbaric raiment and armour of the period
immediately preceding the Graeco-Phoenician (about the eighth century
B.C.). Again we notice the touch of pedantry in the poet. As for the
play, the sombre thread in it is lent by the certainty of Achilles' early
death, the fate which drives him from Deidamie's arms, and from the sea
king's isle to the leagues under the fatal walls of Ilion. Of comic
effect there is plenty, for the sisters of Deidamie imitate all the acts
by which Achilles is likely to betray himself--grasp the sword among the
insidious presents of Odysseus, when he seizes the spear, and drink each
one of them a huge beaker of wine to the confusion of the Trojans. {70}
On a Parisian audience the imitations of the tone of the Odyssey must
have been thrown away. For example, here is a passage which is as near
being Homeric as French verse can be. Deidamie is speaking in a
melancholy mood:

"Heureux les epoux rois assis dans leur maison,
Qui voient tranquillement s'enfuir chaque saison--
L'epoux tenant son sceptre, environne de gloire,
Et l'epouse filant sa quenouille d'ivoire!
Mais le jeune heros que, la glaive a son franc!
Court dans le noir combat, les mains teintes de sang,
Laisse sa femme