orded to the new stage under the Decazes ministry, it was to be only
a gymnase composed of the young pupils of the Conservatoire, and other
dramatic and lyric schools, and was authorized only to present
fragments from the various repertories. But from the beginning it
transgressed the limits set for it. Not content with simple pupils, it
engaged actors already well known. In place of borrowing debris of the
repertories of other theatres, it created one of its own. At first the
authorities shut their eyes. But when M. de Corbiere became Minister of
the Interior, he tried to enforce the regulations and to compel the new
theatre to confine itself to the limits of its privilege. The Gymnase
asked for time, was very meek, prayed, supplicated. It would have
succumbed, however, but for the intervention of the Duchess of Berry.
Scribe composed for the apartments of the Tuileries a vaudeville,
called La Rosiere, in which he invoked the Princess as protectress, as
a beneficent fairy. She turned aside the fulminations of M. de
Corbiere. The minister was obstinate; he wished the last word; but the
Princess finally carried the day. The day after he had addressed to the
director of the Gymnase a warning letter, he was amazed to hear the
Duchess of Berry say: "I hope, Monsieur, that you will not torment the
Gymnase any longer, for, henceforth, it will bear my name."

The minister yielded. The Gymnase was saved. It kept its company, its
repertory; it gained the right to give new pieces. From the first days
of September, 1824, it took the name of Madame the Duchess of Berry.
After the death of Louis XVIII., the 16th of that month, the Duchess of
Angouleme having replaced her title of Madame by that of Dauphiness,
and the Duchess of Berry taking the former, the Gymnase was called the
Theatre de Madame.

The programme of the Gymnase was constantly being renewed. Scribe,
whose verve was inexhaustible, wrote for this theatre alone nearly one
hundred and fifty pieces. It is true that he had
collaborators,--Germain Delavigne, Dupin, Melesville, Brazier, Varner,
Carmouche, Bayard, etc. It was to them that he wrote, in the dedication
of the edition of his works:--

"To my collaborators: My dear friends, I have often been reproached for
the number of my collaborators; for myself, who am happy to count among
them only friends, I regret, on the contrary, that I have not more of
them. I am often asked why I have not worked alone. To this I will