g true to
the present time. Yet he did not hesitate to steal _Othello_ when he
wanted to write _Zaire_, or, rather, he went out on the boulevards,
picked out the first good-looking barber he could find, dressed him
up in Eastern garments, and then fancied that he had created a French
Othello."

"I saw Mounet-Sully at one of the performances of your _Othello_" I
remarked. "I wonder what he thought of his own personation of Orosmane
when he witnessed the real tragedy?"

"Had Mounet-Sully been able to appreciate _Othello_" answered Rossi,
"he never could have brought himself to personate Orosmane."

Some one then asked Rossi what he thought of the Comedie Frarcaise.

"The Comedie Francaise," said Rossi, "like every school of acting that
is founded on art, and not on Nature, is falling into decadence. It
is ruled by tradition, not by the realities of life and passion. One
incident that I beheld at a rehearsal at that theatre in 1855 revealed
the usual process by which their great performers study their art. I
was then fulfilling an engagement in Paris with Ristori, and, though
only twenty-two years of age, I was her leading man and stage-manager
as well. The Italian troupe was requested to perform at the Comedie
Francaise on the occasion of the benefit of which I have spoken, and
we were to give one act of _Maria Stuart_, When we arrived at the
theatre to commence our rehearsal the company was in the act of
rehearsing a scene from _Tartuffe_ which was to form part of the
programme on the same occasion. M. Bressant was the Tartuffe, and
Madeleine Brohan was to personate Elmire. They came to the point where
Tartuffe lays his hand on the knee of Elmire. Thereupon, Mademoiselle
Brohan turned to the stage-manager and asked, 'What am I to do now?'
'Well,' said that functionary, 'Madame X---- used to bite her lips and
look sideways at the offending hand; Madame Z---- used to blush
and frown, etc.' But neither of them said, What would a woman like
Elmire--a virtuous woman--do if so insulted by a sneaking hypocrite?
They took counsel of tradition, not of Nature. In fact, the French
stage is given over to sensation dramas and the opera bouffe, and such
theatres as the Comedie Francaise and the Odeon have but a forced and
artificial existence."

"Not a word against the opera bouffe!" remarked one of the
lady-guests, laughing. "Did I not see you enjoying yourself immensely
at the second representation of _La Boulangere a des Ecus