the Brotherhood of Art; and it was only for Mr.
Macready to think it possible that I might serve him in order to induce
me to make the attempt.

Secondly, in that attempt I was mainly anxious to see whether or
not, after the comparative failure on the stage of "The Duchess de la
Valliere," certain critics had truly declared that it was not in my
power to attain the art of dramatic construction and theatrical effect.
I felt, indeed, that it was in this that a writer, accustomed to the
narrative class of composition, would have the most both to learn and
unlearn. Accordingly, it was to the development of the plot and the
arrangement of the incidents that I directed my chief attention;--and I
sought to throw whatever belongs to poetry less into the diction and
the "felicity of words" than into the construction of the story, the
creation of the characters, and the spirit of the pervading sentiment.

The authorship of the play was neither avowed nor suspected until the
play had established itself in public favor. The announcement of my
name was the signal for attacks, chiefly political, to which it is now
needless to refer. When a work has outlived for some time the earlier
hostilities of criticism, there comes a new race of critics to which a
writer may, for the most part, calmly trust for a fair consideration,
whether of the faults or the merits of his performance.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

BEAUSEANT, a rich gentleman of Lyons, in love with,
and refused by, Pauline Deschappelles MR. ELTON.

GLAVIS, his friend, also a rejected suitor to Pauline MR. MEADOWS.

COLONEL (afterwards General) DAMAS, cousin to Mme. Deschappelles,
and an officer in the French army MR. BARTLEY.

MONSIEUR DESCHAPPELLES, a Lyonnese merchant father to Pauline
MR. STRICKLAND.

GASPAR MR. DIDDEAR.

CLAUDE MELNOTTE MR. MACREADY.

FIRST OFFICER MR. HOWE.

SECOND OFFICER MR. PRITCHARD.

THIRD OFFICER MR. ROBERTS.

Servants, Notary, etc.

MADAME DESCHAPPELLES MRS. W. CLIFFORD.

PAULINE, her daughter