unfortunate angel feels a
certain inclination for the Don, and actually flies up to heaven to ask
permission to remain with him on earth.

And when the curtain draws up, to the sound of harps, and discovers
white-robed angels walking in the clouds, we find the angel of Marana
upon her knees, uttering the following address:--

LE BON ANGE.

Vierge, a qui le calice a la liqueur amere
Fut si souvent offert,
Mere, que l'on nomma la douloureuse mere,
Tant vous avez souffert!

Vous, dont les yeux divins sur la terre des hommes
Ont verse plus de pleurs
Que vos pieds n'ont depuis, dans le ciel ou nous sommes,
Fait eclore de fleurs.

Vase d'election, etoile matinale,
Miroir de purete,
Vous qui priez pour nous, d'une voix virginale,
La supreme bonte;

A mon tour, aujourd'hui, bienheureuse Marie,
Je tombe a vos genoux;
Daignez donc m'ecouter, car c'est vous que je prie,
Vous qui priez pour nous.

Which may be thus interpreted:--

O Virgin blest! by whom the bitter draught
So often has been quaffed,
That, for thy sorrow, thou art named by us
The Mother Dolorous!

Thou, from whose eyes have fallen more tears of woe,
Upon the earth below,
Than 'neath thy footsteps, in this heaven of ours,
Have risen flowers!

O beaming morning star! O chosen vase!
O mirror of all grace!
Who, with thy virgin voice, dost ever pray
Man's sins away;

Bend down thine ear, and list, O blessed saint!
Unto my sad complaint;
Mother! to thee I kneel, on thee I call,
Who hearest all.

She proceeds to request that she may be allowed to return to earth, and
follow the fortunes of Don Juan; and, as there is one difficulty, or, to
use her own words,--

Mais, comme vous savez qu'aux voutes eternelles,
Malgre moi, tend mon vol,
Soufflez sur mon etoile et detachez mes ailes,
Pour m'enchainer au sol;

her request is granted, her star is BLOWN OUT (O poetic allusion!) and
she descends to earth to love, and to go mad, and to die for Don Juan!

The reader will require no further explanation, in order to be satisfied
as to the moral of this play: but is it not a very bitter satire upon
the country, which calls itself the politest nation in the world, that
the in