Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 1.djvu/44

xxxvi it, the idea of an actable drama, and not one that of a good actable drama; though there may be situations and scenes here and there which might make what is called a saynète. Except that he employs the dramatic method of presentation par personnages (to repeat that useful old French phrase) instead of that of narration—except that he has side-headings of speakers' names, and stage-directions, and divisions of scenes—the whole thing is pure romance or pure novel. If there were not a great deal of pedantry in human nature I do not know why we should object to this. Some of the pieces, Les Espagnols en Danemark, for instance; Les Deux Héritages and some others would perhaps be better in narrative prose. Le Carrosse du Saint Sacrement might be. But I do not seem to see Une Femme est un Diable, or L'Occasion, or Le Ciel et L'Enfer, nearly so well in the continuous form; and when I compare La Jacquerie with Charles IX, I am by no means sure that the former would gain by adapting the shape of the latter. Nay I am not certain that some of the objections which M. Filon (for instance) has taken to the latter might not lose their force if it had taken the shape of the former. On the other hand there is not one of the great short stories which would not lose