“I was following up the seed that chivalry sowed, the idea of the self-effacement of the strong in favor of the weak. But let us turn from the dramatist to the comedy, and by a short consideration of ‘_Les Precieuses Ridicules_,’ I may be able to make your point for you, ‘that the actual present is as romantic as the romance of the past.’ “At the beginning of this play, Georgebus, a provincial gentleman, has made arrangements with two satisfactory persons to marry respectively his daughter and niece. The girls are brought to Paris, where the candidates for their hands and hearts appear and come to the point at once. It seems the girls have been reading the romances of Mlle. de Scudéry, who has given them the idea that a lover should fall in love at sight, seek out his lady, woo her, and after gallantly surmounting many obstacles, win her. Georgebus perceives that the men depart in displeasure and investigates. He has observed that the girls are aping the manners of the ladies of the Court, which in Molière’s time were very affected. Georgebus’ daughter states her platform. It is rather romantic, but there are lovers nowadays that might fill the bill. She closes by saying, ‘But to plunge headlong into a proposal of marriage, to make love and marriage settlements go hand in hand, is to begin the romance at the wrong end. Once more, father, there is nothing more shopkeeper-like than such proceedings.’ Georgebus is unable ‘to make out the meaning of her jargon,’ while his niece adds that those gentlemen ‘have never seen the map of the Country of Tenderness.’ She is also dissatisfied with their dress. “Certainly, Molière did know what young girls crave, which Georgebus was unable to understand. “In the meantime the disconcerted lovers have dressed their valets up and bidden them address the ladies in the most exaggerated fashion. The young girls are completely taken in, as girls often are by pseudo noblemen. The comedy runs high. Finally the masters appear, strip their valets of their finery, whip them and send them home. “The bottom falls out of everything. Georgebus cries, ‘Hide yourselves, you idiots, hide yourselves forever,’ and after the girls’ exit, adds, ‘The cause of all the trouble lies in romances, verses, songs, sonnets and lays.’ “But in the long run, romances, verses and songs have won. Twentieth century sentiment goes with the girls though they were fooled once in the days of their youth. Nowadays, my courts sit in secret session. The novel is their organ, but, History, your crude Courts of Love died out six hundred years ago.” [Illustration: _An Ideal of the Gracious Republic of Venice, Attended by Justice and Peace, Expressed by Paul Veronese, Sixteenth Century._]