managers,
attached as they were to the old customs, and respectful of the
traditions, had trembled with horror when they saw moving around
Camille the ignoble Prudence, the idiotic Due de Varville, the silly
Saint-Gaudens. But the public--though the fact was suspected neither
by them nor by the public itself--yearned for more truth upon the
boards. When 'Camille' was presented to them, the play-goers uttered a
cry of astonishment and joy: that was the thing! that was just what
they wanted! From that day, which will remain as a date in the history
of the French stage, the part of Camille has been performed by all the
celebrated actresses. The part has two sides: one may see in it a
degraded woman who has fallen profoundly in love, rather late in life;
one may also see in it a woman, already poetical in her own nature,
suddenly carried away by a great passion into the sacred regions of
the Ideal.

Almost any young man in Dumas's place would have lost his head after
so astounding a success, and might not have resisted the temptation of
at once working out the vein. For on coming out of the theatre after
the first performance, the author had all the managers at his feet,
and the smallest trifle was sure to be accepted if it only had his
signature. But he had learned, by the side of "a prodigal father," the
art of husbanding his talent. He declined to front the footlights
again, save with a work upon which he had been able to bestow all the
care and labor it deserved: he waited a year before he gave, at the
Gymnase theatre, 'Diane de Lys.'

'Diane de Lys' undoubtedly pleased the public, but its success was not
exactly brilliant. It is full of great qualities, it is strongly
conceived, constructed with rare power and logic, but it added nothing
to his reputation. The play as a whole seemed long and melancholy. It
is a curious subject for critical study, as one of the stages in which
the genius of the author stopped awhile, on its way to higher works.
It will leave no great trace in his career.

Two years later he gave at the Gymnase theatre--I do not dare to say
his masterpiece, but certainly the best constructed and most enjoyable
play he ever wrote, 'Le Demi-Monde' (The Other Half-World). In this
play he discovered and defined the very peculiar world of those women
who live on the margin of regular "society," and try to preserve its
tone and demeanor. What scientific and strong construction are here!
What an admirable d