_La bataille de dames_, also written with Legouvé, is well known for its rapid action and sprightly dialogue. Scribe also composed the libretti of the following operas: _La dame blanche_ (1825), by Boïeldieu; _La muette de Portici_ (1828), _Fra Diavolo_ (1830), _Le cheval de bronze_ (1835), and others, by Auber; _Robert le Diable_ (1831), _Les Huguenots_ (1836), and _Le prophète_ (1849), by Meyerbeer. He wrote a number of novels, among which are _Carlo Broschi_, _Judith_, _Le roi de carreau_, and _Maurice_. Though widely read, they made no great literary mark. In 1836 the French Academy elected Scribe to membership. His productivity was enormous. Either alone or in collaboration, he produced over four hundred plays. At least three hundred and fifty of these have been printed separately in various collections of dramas, as _Le théâtre de madame_, _La France dramatique_, _Le magazin théâtral_, and _Le théâtre illustré_. A complete edition of his works has now been published by Calmann-Lévy, Paris. His many successful plays gave him large financial returns and his wealth increased rapidly. He left the most considerable fortune ever accumulated by any author of France. He died at Paris on the 20th of February, 1861. Scribe was not great in a purely literary way. His style is not all that could be desired. Neither was he a profound thinker or psychologist, nor a herald of new ideas. His ideas of morality were those current in his time. His world is that of the materialistic and self-satisfied bourgeoisie of the reign of Louis-Philippe. His shortcomings are manifest and have been severely handled by more than one eminent critic. It is, nevertheless, undeniable that Scribe was a master at handling the plot and action of a drama. He possessed a most intimate knowledge of the technique of plays and the requirements of the stage. He excelled in the art of maintaining the interest of the spectator by skillful and rapid changes in the situation, by an abundance of action, and by a vivacious and lifelike conversation. He possessed in a very high degree the power to please and entertain an audience and to produce the desired theatrical effect. When M. Octave Feuillet (1821-1890) succeeded Eugène Scribe as a member of the French Academy, on March 26th, 1863, he said in his address of reception: “Un des arts les plus difficiles dans le domaine de l’invention littéraire, c’est celui de charmer l’imagination sans l’ébranler, de toucher le cœur sans le troubler, d’amuser les hommes sans les corrompre: ce fut l’art suprême de Scribe.”