re are no traces of the pen which wrote the
second act of _Guillaume Tell_.

Apropos of this second act, it is not, perhaps, generally known that the
author had no idea of ending it with a prayer. Insurrections are not
usually begun with so serious a song. But at the rehearsals the effect
of the unison, _Si parmi nous il est des Traitres_, was so great that
they did not dare to go on beyond it. So they suppressed the real
ending, which is now the brilliant entrancing end of the overture. This
finale is extant in the library at the Opera. It would be an interesting
experiment to restore it and give this beautiful act its natural
conclusion.

CHAPTER XIX

JULES MASSENET

Massenet has been praised indiscriminately--sometimes for his numerous
and brilliant powers and sometimes for merits he did not have at all.

I have waited to speak of him until the time when the Academie was ready
to replace him,--that is to say, put some one in his place, for great
artists are never replaced. Others succeed them with their own
individual and different powers, but they do not take their places
nevertheless. Malibran has never been replaced, nor Madame Viardot,
Madame Carvalho, Talma and Rachel. No one can ever replace Patti, Bartet
or Sarah Bernhardt. They could not replace Ingres, Delacroix, Berlioz,
or Gounod, and they can never replace Massenet.

It is a question whether he has been accorded his real place. Perhaps
his pupils have estimated him at his true worth, but they were grateful
for his excellent teaching, and may be rightly suspected of partiality.
Others have spoken slightingly of his works and they have applied to him
by transposing the words of the celebrated dictum: _Saltavit et
placuit_. He sang and wept, so they sought to deprecate him as if there
were something reprehensible in an artist's pleasing the public. This
notion might seem to have some basis in view of the taste that is
affected to-day--a predilection for all that is shocking and displeasing
in all the arts, including poetry. Sorcieres's epigram--the ugly is
beautiful and the beautiful ugly--has become a programme. People are no
longer content with merely admiring atrocities, they even speak with
contempt of beauties hallowed by time and the admiration of centuries.

The fact remains that Massenet is one of the most brilliant diamonds in
our musical crown. No musician has enjoyed so much favor with the public
save Auber, whom Massenet did not c