nce was to be brilliantly representative of the
aristocracy, beauty, and talent of France. The proscenium would,
Balzac hoped, be occupied by ambassadors and ministers, the pit by the
Chevaliers de St. Louis, and the orchestra stalls by peers; while
deputies and state functionaries were to be placed in the second
gallery, financiers in the third, and rich bourgeoisie in the fourth.
Beautiful women were to be accommodated with particularly prominent
places; the price of the seats was to be doubled or trebled; and to
avoid the continual interruptions to which "Vautrin" was subjected,
tickets were only to be sold to Balzac's assured friends. Therefore
many persons who offered fabulous sums of money were refused
admittance, and told that every seat was taken. By these means Balzac
ultimately overreached himself, as people believed that all the seats
were really sold, and that it was no use to apply for tickets. When,
therefore, March 19th, 1842, the night of Balzac's anticipated triumph
arrived, instead of a brilliant assemblage crowding the Odeon, it was
three parts empty; and the small audience, who had paid enormously for
their seats, and naturally expected a brilliant throng in the theatre,
were in a critical and captious mood.

The scene of the play was laid in Spain in the time of Phillip II.,
and much of the dialogue was witty and spirited; but Balzac had mixed
up serious situations and burlesque in a manner irritating to the
audience, and there were many interruptions. Balzac was fortunately
unaware of his want of success; he had completely disappeared, and it
was not till half-past twelve, long after the finish of the
performance, that he was discovered fast asleep at the back of a box.
The fourth representation of "Les Ressources de Quinola" was specially
tumultuous. Lireux, being now master of the theatre, invited all the
journalistic world to be present, and they, furious at their exclusion
during the first three nights, encouraged the general clamour. Some of
the hooters were turned out, and the audience then amused themselves
by ejaculating "Splendid!" "Admirable!" "Superb!" and "Sublime!" at
every sentence, and by singing comic couplets, such as:

C'est M. Balzac,
Qu'a fait tout ce mic-mac!

During the intervals.

However, after two scenes had been entirely cut out, and several
others suppressed, "Quinola" ran for nineteen nights. Many years
afterwards, in 1863, it was acted at the Vaudeville, and wa