idnight, the time appointed by
police regulations for the closing of playhouses. At the same time a
more serious and far-reaching criticism was levelled at the very
principles on which the conception of human life was then dependent. A
new philosophy, based on scientific research, had been gradually gaining
ground and penetrating the French mind. A host of bold writers had been
trying, with considerable firmness and continuity of purpose, to start a
new kind of fiction, writing in perfect accordance with the determinist
theories of Auguste Comte, Darwin and Taine. The long-disputed success
of the Naturalistic School carried everything before it during the years
1875-1885, and its triumphant leaders were tempted to make the best of
their advantage by annexing a new province and establishing a footing on
the stage. In this they failed signally, either when they were assisted
by professional dramatists or when left to their own resources. It
became evident that Naturalism, to be made acceptable on the stage,
would have to undergo a special process of transformation and be handled
in a peculiar way. Henry Becque succeeded in embodying the new theories
in two plays, which at first met with very indifferent success, but were
revived at a later period, and finally obtained permanent recognition in
the French theatre--even with the acquiescence of the most learned
critics, when they discovered, or fancied they discovered, that Becque's
comedies agreed, in the main, with Moliere's conception of dramatic art.
In _Les Corbeaux_ and _La Parisienne_ the plot is very simple; the
episodes are incidents taken from ordinary life. No extraneous character
is introduced to discuss moral and social theories, or to acquaint us
with the psychology of the real _dramatis personae_, or to suggest
humorous observations about the progress of the dramatic action. The
characters are left to tell their own tale in their own words, which are
sometimes very comical, sometimes very repulsive, but purport to be
always true to nature. Human will, which was the soul and mainspring of
French tragedy in the 17th century, and played such a paramount part in
the _drame bourgeois_ and the _haute comedie_ of the 19th, appears in M.
Becque's plays to have fallen from its former exalted position and to
have ceased to be a free agent. It is a mere passive instrument to our
inner desires and instincts and appetites, which, in their turn, obey
natural laws. Thus, in Be