The duration and climax of Auber's musical career were founded on his friendship and artistic alliance with Scribe, one of the most fertile librettists and playwrights of modern times. To this union, which lasted till Scribe's death, a great number of operas, comic and serious, owe their existence: not all of equal value, but all evincing the apparently inexhaustible productive genius of the joint authors. The works on which Auber's claims to musical greatness rest are as follows:--"Leicester," 1822; "Le Maçon," 1825, the composer's _chef-d'oeuvre_ in comic opera; "La Muette de Portici," otherwise "Masaniello," 1828; "Fra Diavolo," 1830; "Lestocq," 1835; "Le Cheval de Bronze," 1835; "L'Ambassadrice," 1836; "Le Domino Noir," 1837; "Les Diamants de la Couronne," 1841; "Carlo Braschi," 1842; "Haydée," 1847; "L'Enfant Prodigue," 1850; "Zerline," 1851, written for Madame Alboni; "Manon Lescaut," 1856; "La Fiancée du Roi de Garbe," 1867; "Le Premier Jour de Bonheur," 1868; and "Le Rêve d'Amour," 1869. The last two works were composed after Auber had passed his eightieth year. The indifference of this Anacreon of music to renown is worthy of remark. He never attended the performance of his own pieces, and disdained applause. The highest and most valued distinctions were showered on him; orders, jewelled swords, diamond snuff-boxes, were poured in from all the courts of Europe. Innumerable invitations urged him to visit other capitals, and receive honour from imperial hands. But Auber was a true Parisian, and could not be induced to leave his beloved city. He was a Member of the Institute, Commander of the Legion of Honour, and Cherubini's successor as Director of the Conservatory. He enjoyed perfect health up to the day of his death in 1871. Assiduous in his duties at the Conservatory, and active in his social relations, which took him into the most brilliant circles of an extended period, covering the reigns of Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III., he yet always found time to devote several hours a day to composition. Auber was a small, delicate man, yet distinguished in appearance, and noted for wit. His _bons mots_ were celebrated. While directing a musical _soirée_ when over eighty, a gentleman having taken a white hair from his shoulder, he said, laughingly, "This hair must belong to some old fellow who passed near me."