4 NOVEMBER 1893, Page 13

is not without faults. Those the editor perceives clearly enough,

and points out without partiality. The most serious, artistically speaking, is the interpolation of the love supposed to be felt by the heroine for the Girondist Deputy Barbaroux. But a play,

certainly a French play, must have some love in it, and Ponsard could plead the example of many dramatists who had done the same before him. For educational purposes, one of the

conspicuous merits of the play is its pellucid clearness. In the whole range of French dramatic poetry, nothing easier could be found in the way of interpretation. Therefore Mr. Roper has had little to do, but the historical references and allusions he explains with satisfactory fullness.