came certain that the "traditions" were not mere
catchwords, but a most beneficent reality.

Going to the other Parisian theatres helps you to believe in them.
Unless you are a voracious theatre-goer you give the others up; you
find they don't pay; the Francais does for you all that they do and so
much more besides. There are two possible exceptions--the Gymnase and
the Palais Royal, The Gymnase, since the death of Mlle. Desclee, has
been under a heavy cloud; but occasionally, when a month's sunshine
rests upon it, there is a savor of excellence in the performance. But
you feel that you are still within the realm of accident; the
delightful security of the Rue de Richelieu is wanting. The young lover
is liable to be common, and the beautifully dressed heroine to have an
unpleasant voice. The Palais Royal has always been in its way very
perfect; but its way admits of great imperfection. The actresses are
classically bad, though usually pretty, and the actors are much
addicted to taking liberties. In broad comedy, nevertheless, two or
three of the latter are not to be surpassed, and (counting out the
women) there is usually something masterly in a Palais Royal
performance. In its own line it has what is called style, and it
therefore walks, at a distance, in the footsteps of the Francais. The
Odeon has never seemed to me in any degree a rival of the Theatre
Francais, though it is a smaller copy of that establishment. It
receives a subsidy from the State, and is obliged by its contract to
play the classic repertory one night in the week. It is on these
nights, listening to Moliere or Marivaux, that you may best measure the
superiority of the greater theatre. I have seen actors at the Odeon, in
the classic repertory, imperfect in their texts; a monstrously
insupposable case at the Comedie Francaise. The function of the Odeon
is to operate as a _pepiniere_ or nursery for its elder--to try young
talents, shape them, make them flexible, and then hand them over to the
upper house. The more especial nursery of the Francais, however, is the
Conservatoire Dramatique, an institution dependent upon the State,
through the Ministry of the Fine Arts, whose budget is charged with
the remuneration of its professors. Pupils graduating from the
Conservatoire with a prize have _ipso facto_ the right to _debuter_ at
the Theatre Francais, which retains them or lets them go, according to
its discretion. Most of the first subjects of the Franca