Page:Poet Lore, volume 28, 1917.djvu/75

Rh of the former play is Ernest of the latter. But let us examine with a bit more of detail some of these fantastic and gesticulating figures which crowd the stage.

The characters —we call them such for want of a more fitting term —are, without exception, caricatures, more or less skillfully delineated by a few lightning-like sweeps of the pen. The author has created one type and he sticks to it; call it Perrichon, Malingear, Ratinois, Dutrecy or what you will, these bourgeois are all cut from the same web, and upon the identical pattern. All are sketched in by Labiche's wonderful knowledge of man ners, customs and foibles. His lovers and husbands are mostly prototypes of Celimare, or are in the way of becoming so. With woman Labiche does not concern himself; evidently she is not funny, and is thrown into the bargain merely to suit the exigences of plot and scene. There is not a real woman in all of these plays; they are weak, flimsy, hazy shapes, unconvincing and stupid; they do precisely as they are told, and think conventionally, if they think at all. These types Labiche surrounds by the uproar and confusion of comic situation and it is this hullabaloo that gives them the semblance of being alive. They are all married, or are shortly about to be. Labiche shows them to us by de picting traits of manners, and sometimes traits of character. His is a festival of mirth, conducted for the greater part with good sense. He does not declaim or rant; neither does he strive for pretentious or crafty satire. He is what he is and we are glad to accept him as such.

He is what he i s , a master of merriment, a true descendant of Moliere, who brings tears of laughter to our eyes and aches of laughter to our sides. He i s rarely a sly or subtle joker. His wit does not possess the rapier-like thrust of the trenchant blade of Moliere. But i f i t i s more elemental i t i s less caustic and bitter. It injures nobody; and everyone i s pleased to laugh at what he considers to be the foibles of his neighbor. The method by which the author obtains his effects, i s not so easy to ascertain; so largely does his wit grow out of humorous situation and incident, that one must cite whole scenes in order to explain the true flavor of the humor of Eugene Labiche. Ex amples are not wanting, for every play sparkles with the wit of the master. There i s the scene in " Le Plus Heureux Des Trois" in which Ernest, the young lover of Hermance, the second wife of Marjavel, and Jobelin, Ernest's uncle, are blackmailed by a coach man. Again, Jobelin comes in and noticing the portrait^)