m a considerable portion of the public and the
press. The Theatre Libre brought under public notice such men as George
Courteline and George Ancey, who gave respectively, in _Bonbouroche_ and
_La Dupe_, specimens of a comic vein called the "_comique cruel_."
Fabre, in _L'Argent_, approached if not surpassed his master, Henry
Becque. Brieux, in _Blanchette_, gave promise of talent, which he has
since in a great measure justified. In _Les Fossiles_ and _L'Envers
d'une sainte_, by Francois de Curel, were found evidences of dramatic
vigour and concentrated energy, allied with a remarkable gift for the
minute analysis of feeling. Antoine's activity was not exclusively
confined to the efforts of the French Naturalistic School; he included
the Norwegian drama in his programme, and successively produced several
of Ibsen's plays. They received a large amount of attention from the
critics, the views then expressed ranging from the wildest enthusiasm to
the bitterest irony. Francisque Sarcey was decidedly hostile, and Jules
Lemaitre, who ranked next to him in authority, ventured to suggest that
Ibsen's ideas were nothing better than long-discarded social and
literary paradoxes, borrowed from Pierre Leroux through George Sand, and
returned to the French market as novelties. Ibsen was not understood by
the French public at large, though his influence could be clearly traced
on thoughtful men like Paul Hervieu and Francois de Curel.

The authors of the Theatre Libre were sadly wanting in tact and
patience. They went at once to extremes, and, while trying to free
themselves from an obsolete form of drama, fell into a state of anarchy.
If a too elaborate plot is a fault, no plot at all is an absurdity. The
old school had been severely taken to task for devoting the first act to
the delineation of character, and the delineation of character was now
found to have extended over the whole play; and worse still, most of
these young men seemed to find pleasure in importing a low vocabulary on
to the stage; they made it their special object to place before the
spectator revolting pictures of the grossest immorality. In this they
were supported by a knot of noisy and unwise admirers, whose misplaced
approval largely contributed towards bringing an otherwise useful and
interesting undertaking into disrepute. The result was that after the
lapse of eight years the little group collected round Antoine had lost
in cohesion and spirit, that it was bo