Born in 1832, M. Henri Meilhac, like M. Emile Zola, dealt in books before he began to make them. He soon gave up trade for journalism, and contributed with pen and pencil to the comic _Journal pour Rire_. He began as a dramatist in 1855 with a two-act play at the Palais Royal Theatre: like the first pieces of Scribe and of M. Sardou, and of so many more who have afterward abundantly succeeded on the stage, this play of M. Meilhac's was a failure; and so also was his next, likewise in two acts. But in 1856 the _Sarabande du Cardinal_, a delightful little comedy in one act, met with favor at the Gymnase. It was followed by two or three other comediettas equally clever. In 1859, M. Meilhac made his first attempt at a comedy in five acts, but the _Petit fils de Mascarille_ had not the good fortune of his ancestor. In 1860, for the first time, he was assisted by M. Ludovic Halevy, and in the twenty years since then their names have been linked together on the title-pages of two score or more plays of all kinds--drama, comedy, farce, opera, operetta and ballet. M. Meilhac's new partner was the nephew of the Halevy who is best known out of France as the composer of the _Jewess_, and he was the son of M. Leon Halevy, poet, philosopher and playwright. Two years younger than M. Henri Meilhac, M. Ludovic Halevy held a place in the French civil service until 1858, when he resigned to devote his whole time, instead of his spare time, to the theatre. As the son of a dramatist and the nephew of a popular composer, he had easy access to the stage. He began as the librettist-in-ordinary to M. Offenbach, for whom he wrote _Ba-ta-clan_ in 1855, and later the _Chanson de Fortunio_, the _Pont des Soupirs_ and _Orphee aux Enfers_. The first very successful play which MM. Meilhac and Halevy wrote together was a book for M. Offenbach; and it was possibly the good fortune of this operetta which finally affirmed the partnership. Before the triumph of the _Belle Helene_ in 1864 the collaboration had been tentative, as it were: after that it was as though the articles had been definitely ratified--not that either of the parties has not now and then indulged in outside speculations, trying a play alone or with an outsider, but this was without prejudice to the permanent partnership.