ook-out for a chance of paying him back in his own coin. Two
servants of Geronte, the Croesus of the neighbourhood, appear in search
of a doctor to cure their master's daughter Lucinde, who pretends to be
dumb in order to avoid a marriage she dislikes. Martine sends them to
the place where her husband is at work, telling them that they will find
him an able doctor. She adds that he has one peculiarity, namely, that
he will not own to his profession unless he is soundly thrashed. Under
the convincing arguments of the two men, Sganarelle admits that he is a
doctor, and follows them to their master's house. Leandre, Lucinde's
lover, persuades Sganarelle to smuggle him into the house as an
apothecary. The two young people with Sganarelle's help contrive an
elopement, but when the marriage is discovered, Geronte visits his wrath
upon the mock doctor, and is only pacified by the news that Leandre has
just inherited a fortune.

The year 1859 saw the production of 'Faust,' the opera with which
Gounod's name is principally associated. The libretto, by MM. Barbier
and Carre does not of course claim to represent Goethe's play in any
way. The authors had little pretension to literary skill, but they knew
their business thoroughly. They fastened upon the episode of Gretchen,
and threw all the rest overboard. The result was a well-constructed and
thoroughly comprehensible libretto, with plenty of love-making and
floods of cheap sentiment, but as different in atmosphere and suggestion
from Goethe's mighty drama as could well be imagined.

The first act shows us Faust as an old man, sitting in his study weary
and disappointed. He is about to end his troubles and uncertainty in
death, when an Easter hymn sung in the distance by a chorus of villagers
seems to bid him stay his hand. With a quick revulsion of feeling he
calls on the powers below, and, rather to his surprise, Mephistopheles
promptly appears. In exchange for his soul, the devil offers him youth,
beauty, and love, and, as an earnest of what is to come, shows him a
vision of the gentle Margaret sitting at her spinning wheel. Faust is
enraptured, hastily signs the contract, and hurries away with his
attendant fiend.

The next act is taken up with a Kermesse in the market-place of a
country town. Valentine, the brother of Margaret, departs for the wars,
after confiding his sister to the care of his friend Siebel. During a
pause in the dances Faust salutes Margaret for the firs