h is one of pure logic.

'Une Visite de Noces' (A Wedding Call) and 'La Princesse Georges'
followed rather closely on 'Madame Aubray's Ideas.' 'A Wedding
Call'!--what a thunderbolt then! It was of but one act, _but_ one act
the effect of which was prodigious, the echo of which is still heard.
Time and familiarity have now softened for us the too sharp outlines
of this bitter play. It has been acknowledged a masterpiece. It is
certainly one of the boldest works of this extraordinary magician,
who, thanks to his unerring skill and to the dazzling wit of his
dialogue, brought the public to listen to whatever he chose to put
upon the stage. It seemed that, like a lion tamer in the arena, Dumas
took pleasure in belaboring and exasperating this many-headed monster,
in order to prove to his own satisfaction that he could subdue its
revolts.

'La Princesse Georges' is a work of violent and furious passion. We
find in it Madame de Terremonde, the good woman who adores her
husband, but who adores him with fury, who wants him all to herself,
and who, when sure that she is betrayed, passes from the most
exasperated rage to tears and despair. There is in the first act a
scene of exposition which has become celebrated. No one ever so
rapidly mastered the public; no one ever from the first stroke so
painfully twisted the heart of the spectators.

Let us pass rapidly over 'La Femme de Claude' (Claude's Wife: 1873).
Of all his plays it is the one Dumas said he liked best, the one he
most passionately defended with all sorts of commentaries, letters,
prefaces, etc.; the one which he insisted on having revived, a long
time after it had failed. To my mind that play was a mistake; and the
public, in spite of Dumas's arguments, in spite of the protests of the
critics, who are often very glad to distinguish themselves by not
yielding to the common voice,--the public insisted on agreeing with
me.

Only a few months later, Dumas brilliantly retrieved himself with
'Monsieur Alphonse.' His Madame Guichard is the most cheerfully vulgar
type of the _parvenue_ which any one ever dared to put upon the stage.
She can hardly read and write; she is no longer young, and she is "to
boot" very proud of her money; she has no tact and no taste; but at
heart she is a good sort of woman. Her morality is as primitive as her
education. But deceit disgusts her; she hates but one thing, she
says,--lying. She is not troubled by conventionalities; and her speec