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(Last page written in pencil.)—­It is my wish that when I am dead, I may be wrapped in a simple linen cloth, placed in a rough unplaned coffin, and buried under the apple-tree, on the road that leads to my paternal mansion.  I desire that my brother and other relatives may be apprised of my death at once, and that they shall not disturb my grave by the wayside.

No stone, no name, is to mark my grave.

EMILE AUGIER

(1820-1889)

As an observer of society, a satirist, and a painter of types and characters of modern life, Emile Augier ranks among the greatest French dramatists of this century.  Critics consider him in the line of direct descent from Moliere and Beaumarchais.  His collected works (’Theatre Complet’) number twenty-seven plays, of which nine are in verse.  Eight of these were written with a literary partner.  Three are now called classics:  ‘Le Gendre de M. Poirier’ (M.  Poirier’s Son-in-Law), ‘L’Aventuriere’ (The Adventuress), and ‘Fils de Giboyer’ (Giboyer’s Boy).  ‘Le Gendre de M. Poirier’ was written with Jules Sandeau, but the admirers of Augier have proved by internal evidence that his share in its composition was the greater.  It is a comedy of manners based on the old antagonism between vulgar ignorant energy and ability on the one side, and lazy empty birth and breeding on the other; embodied in Poirier, a wealthy shopkeeper, and M. de Presles, his son-in-law, an impoverished nobleman.  Guillaume Victor Emile Augier was born in Valence, France, September 17th, 1820, and was intended for the law; but inheriting literary tastes from his grandfather, Pigault Lebrun the romance writer, he devoted himself to letters.  When his first play, ’La Cigue’ (The Hemlock),—­in the preface to which he defended his grandfather’s memory,—­was presented at the Odeon in 1844, it made the author famous.  Theophile Gautier describes it at length in Vol. iii. of his ‘Art Dramatique,’ and compares it to Shakespeare’s ’Timon of Athens.’  It is a classic play, and the hero closes his career by a draught of hemlock.

Augier’s works are:—­’Un Homme de Bien’ (A Good Man); ‘L’Aventuriere’ (The Adventuress); ‘Gabrielle’; ‘Le Joueur de Flute’ (The Flute Player); ‘Diane’ (Diana), a romantic play on the same theme as Victor Hugo’s ‘Marion Delorme,’ written for and played by Rachel; ’La Pierre de Touche’ (The Touchstone), with Jules Sandeau; ‘Philberte,’ a comedy of the last century; ‘Le Mariage d’Olympe’ (Olympia’s Marriage); ’Le Gendre de M. Poirier’ (M.  Poirier’s Son-in-Law); ‘Ceinture Doree’ (The Golden Belt), with Edouard Foussier; ‘La Jeunesse’ (Youth); ’Les Lionnes Pauvres’ (Ambition and Poverty),—­a bold story of social life in Paris during the Second Empire, also with Foussier; ‘Les Effrontes’ (Brass), an attack on the worship of money; ‘Le Fils de Giboyer’ (Giboyer’s Boy), the story of a father’s devotion, ambitions, and