is have done
their two years' work at the Conservatoire, and M. Sarcey holds that an
actor who has not had that fundamental training which is only to be
acquired there, never obtains a complete mastery of his resources.
Nevertheless some of the best actors of the day have owed nothing to
the Conservatoire--Bressant, for instance, and Aimee Desclee, the
latter of whom, indeed, never arrived at the Francais. (Moliere and
Balzac were not of the Academy, and so Mlle. Desclee, the first actress
after Rachel, died without acquiring the privilege which M. Sarcey says
is the day-dream of all young theatrical women--that of printing on
their visiting cards, after their name, _de la Comedie Francaise_.)

The Theatre Francais has, moreover, the right to do as Moliere did--to
claim its property wherever it finds it. It may stretch out its long
arm and break the engagement of a promising actor at any of the other
theatres; of course after a certain amount of notice given. So, last
winter, it notified to the Gymnase its danger of appropriating Worms,
the admirable _jeune premier_, who, returning from a long sojourn
in Russia, and taking the town by surprise, had begun to retrieve the
shrunken fortunes of that establishment.

On the whole, it may be said that the great talents find their way,
sooner or later, to the Theatre Francais. This is of course not a rule
that works unvaryingly, for there are a great many influences to
interfere with it. Interest as well as merit--especially in the case of
the actresses--weighs in the scale; and the ire that may exist in
celestial minds has been known to manifest itself in the councils of
the Comedie. Moreover, a brilliant actress may prefer to reign supreme
at one of the smaller theatres; at the Francais, inevitably, she shares
her dominion. The honor is less, but the comfort is greater.

Nevertheless, at the Francais, in a general way, there is in each case
a tolerably obvious artistic reason for membership; and if you see a
clever actor remain outside for years, you may be pretty sure that,
though private reasons count, there are artistic reasons as well. The
first half dozen times I saw Mlle. Fargueil, who for years ruled the
roost, as the vulgar saying is, at the Vaudeville, I wondered that so
consummate and accomplished an actress should not have a place on the
first French stage. But I presently grew wiser, and perceived that,
clever as Mlle. Fargueil is, she is not for the Rue de Rich