t has recently been performed by the
Carl Rosa Company in English with some success. The libretto is a poor
one. It deals in conventional fashion with the conspiracy of Cinq Mars
against Richelieu, but the incidents are not well arranged and the
characters are the merest shadows. Much of the music is tuneful and
attractive, though cast in a stiff and old-fashioned form, and the
masquemusic in the second act is as fresh and melodious as anything
Gounod ever wrote. In 'Polyeucte' (1878) he attempted a style of severe
simplicity in fancied keeping with Corneille's tragedy. There are some
noble pages in the work, but as a whole it is distressingly dull, and
'Le Tribut de Zamora' (1881) was also an emphatic failure.

Gounod's later works, as has already been pointed out, show a distinct
falling off from the standard attained in 'Faust,' as regards form as
well as in ideas. As he grew older he showed a stronger inclination to
return to obsolete models. 'Le Tribut de Zamora' reproduces the type of
opera which was popular in the days of Meyerbeer. It is cut up into airs
and recitatives, and the accompaniment is sedulously subordinated to the
voices. Without desiring to discredit the beauties of 'Mireille' or
'Romeo et Juliette,' one cannot help thinking that it would have been
better for Gounod's reputation if he had written nothing for the stage
after 'Faust.'

Very soon after its production Gounod's masterpiece began to exert a
potent influence upon his contemporaries. One of the first French
composers to admit its power was Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896). Thomas was
an older man than Gounod, and had already written much for the stage
without achieving any very decisive success. He was a man of plastic
mind, and was too apt to reproduce in his own music the form and even
the ideas which happened to be popular at the time he wrote. Most of his
early works are redolent of Auber or Halevy. Gounod's influence acted
upon him like a charm, and in 'Mignon' (1866) he produced a work which,
if not strictly original, has an element of personality too distinctive
to be ignored.

If we can dismiss all thoughts of Goethe and his 'Wilhelm Meister' from
our minds, it will be possible to pronounce MM. Barbier and Carre's
libretto a creditable piece of work. Mignon is a child who was stolen in
infancy by a band of gipsies. She travels with them from town to town,
dancing in the streets to the delight of the crowd. One day in a German
city she