SOURCE: Smith, Hugh Allison. “Henri Becque and the Theatre Libre.” In Main Currents of Modern French Drama, pp. 189-207. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1925.

In the following essay, Smith compares the three main influences involved in the modification of Dumas and Augier's Social drama, including Becque and the Theatre Libre.

The significant work of Dumas and Augier was done by 1880, and with the weakening of their master hands, the chief faults of the form of drama they represented became apparent. The most fundamental of these was the artificial duality caused by combining the well-made play of Scribe, a comedy of intrigue complete in itself, with a social study, a character analysis, or the demonstration of a thesis. This inherent lack of singleness of purpose, difficult to conceal except for a master of dramatic art, and the further mingling in the same play of all forms of the serious...