Especially to be commended in _Tricoche et Cacolet_ is the satire of the hysterical sentimentality and of the forced emotions born of luxury and idleness. The parody of the amorous intrigue which is the staple of so many French plays is as wholesome as it is exhilarating. Absurdity is a deadly shower-bath to sentimentalism. The method of Meilhac and Halevy in sketching this couple is not unlike that employed by Mr. W.S. Gilbert in _H.M.S. Pinafore_ and _The Pirates of Penzance_. Especially to be noted is the same perfectly serious pushing of the dramatic commonplaces to an absurd conclusion. There is the same kind of humor too, and the same girding at the stock tricks of stage-craft--in _H.M.S. Pinafore_ at the swapping of children in the cradle, and in _Tricoche et Cacolet_ at the "portrait de ma mere" which has drawn so many tears in modern melodrama. But MM. Meilhac and Halevy, having made one success, did not further attempt the same kind of pleasantry--wiser in this than Mr. Gilbert, who seems to find it hard to write anything else. As in the _Chateau a Toto_ MM. Meilhac and Halevy had made a modern perversion of _Dame Blanche_, so in _La Cigale_ did they dress up afresh the story of the _Fille du R'egiment_. As the poet asks-- Ah, World of ours, are you so gray, And weary, World, of spinning, That you repeat the tales to-day You told at the beginning? For lo! the same old myths that made The early stage-successes Still hold the boards, and still are played With new effects and dresses. I have cited _La Cigale_, not because it is a very good play--for it is not--but because it shows the present carelessness of French dramatists in regard to dramatic construction. _La Cigale_ is a very clever bit of work, but it has the slightest of plots, and this made out of old cloth; and the situations, in so far as there are any, follow each other as best they may. It is not really a play: it is a mere sketch touched up with Parisianisms, "local hits" and the wit of the moment. This substitution of an off-hand sketch for a full-sized picture can better be borne in a little one-act play than in a more ambitious work in three or four acts.