" Dans les salons de Philoxene
Nous ^tions quatre-vingt rimeurs,"

M. De Banville wrote, parodying the "quatre-vingt
ramuers" of Victor Hugo. The memory of M. Boyer's
enthusiasm for poetry and his amiable hospitality are not
unlikely to survive both his compositions and those in
which M. De Banville aided him. The latter poet began
to walk alone as a plajrwright in Le Beau Ltandre (Vaude-
ville, 1856) — a piece with scarcely more substance than the
French scenes in the old Franco-Italian drama possess.
We are taken into an impossible world of gay non-morality,
where a wicked old bourgeois, Orgon, his daughter Colom-
bine, a pretty flirt, and her lover L^andre, a light-hearted
scamp, bustle through their little hour. Ldandre, who has
no notion of being married, says, "Le ciel n'est pas plus
pur que mes intentions." And the artless Colombine replies,
" Alors marions-nous 1 " To marry Colombine without a
dowry forms, as a modern novelist says, " no part of
Ldandre's profligate scheme of pleasure." There is a sort
of treble intrigue. Orgon wants to give away Colombine
dowerless, L&ndre to escape from the whole transaction,
and Colombine to secure her dot and her husband. The
strength of the piece is the brisk action in the scene when
L^andre protests that he can't rob Orgon of his only



70 ESSAYS IN LITTLE.
daughter, and Orgon insists that he can refuse nothing
except his ducats to so charming a son-in-law. The play
is redeemed from sordidness by the costumes. Ldandre is
dressed in the attire of Watteau's " L'Indiffdrent " in the
Louvre, and wears a diamond-hilted sword. The lady who
plays the part of Colombine may select (delightful privilege !)
the prettiest dress in Watteau's collection.
