STAGE.

BY

H.' SUTHERLAND EDWARDS.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

SECOND EDITION.

London:

REMINGTON & CO., PUBLISHERS,

HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.

1889.

[All Rights reserved.]

ERRATA.

Page 11, line 24, for "vous" read "voudrais "

9, for "condemner" read "condamner " 87, 19, for "la" read "le"

5, for "noins" read "moins"

5, for "abbeés" read "abbés"

35,

108,

161,

"read cete

cette 15, for "Ju'" read "Qu'

5, for "on" read ". un

IDOLS OF THE FRENCH STAGE.

THE WIFE OF MOLIÈRE.

CHAPTER I.

THE greatest of French dramatists, who must also be considered the greatest of all comedy writers, began life as a law-student, and, before joining a wandering company, qualified himself for practice at the bar. The story of his adventures as a strolling player, more or less faithfully chronicled, with all the variations allowable in a case where the chronicler is avowedly treating his subject in the spirit of a novelist, is to be found in the Roman Comique of Scarron. It has at least been discovered

VOL. I.

A