o convenient in its vagueness that it became
the accepted name of the hybrid species to which they belonged--in two
works of a very different kind, the famous _Barbier de Seville_ and the
still more famous _Mariage de Figaro_, boldly carried comedy back into
its old Spanish atmosphere of intrigue; but, while surpassing all his
predecessors in the skill with which he constructed his frivolous plots,
he drew his characters with a lightness and sureness of touch peculiar
to himself, animated his dialogue with an unparalleled brilliancy of
wit, and seasoned action as well as dialogue with a political and social
meaning, which caused his epigrams to become proverbs, and which marks
his _Figaro_ as a herald of the Revolution. Such plays as these were ill
suited to the rule of the despot whose vigilance could not overlook
their significance. The comedy of the empire is, in the hands of Collin
d'Harleville, Louis Picard (1769-1828), A. Duval, Etienne and others,
mainly a harmless comedy of manners; nor was the attempted innovation of
N. Lemercier--who was fain to invent a new species, that of historical
comedy--more than a flattering self-delusion. The theatre had its share
in all the movements and changes which ensued in France; though the most
important revolution which the drama itself was to undergo was not one
of wholly native origin. Those branches of the drama which belong
specifically to the history of the opera, or which associate themselves
with it, are here passed by. Among them was the _vaudeville_ (from Val
de Vire in Calvados), which began as an interspersion of pantomime with
the airs of popular songs, and which, after the Italian masks had been
removed from it, was cultivated by Ponsard and Marmontel, while Sedaine
wrote a didactic poem on the subject (1756). Sedaine was the father of
the _opera-comique_ proper;[135] Marmontel,[136] as well as
Rousseau,[137] likewise composed _operettes_--a smaller sort of opera,
at first of the pastoral variety; and these flexible species easily
entered into combination. The melodrama proper, of which the invention
is also attributed to Rousseau,[138] in its latter development became
merely a drama accentuated by music, though usually in little need of
any accentuation.

The stage.

Transition to the romantic school.

The chief home of the regular drama, however, demanded efforts of
another kind. At the Theatre Francais, or Comedie Francaise, whose
history as that of a