Having tested the plays of the past and found them wanting, M. Rolland set himself the task of supplying plays for his projected people's theater. As we have seen, he went to the Revolution, and wrote plays which would appeal to the masses. But these plays must also be acted _by_ the people, and M. Rolland proceeded to make the people a character, a great composite crowd, participating as The People. In _Le 14 Juillet_, The People are the protagonist, and the taking of the Bastille afforded him ample opportunity for utilizing them. In _Danton_ they are rather implied until the last act, while in _Les Loups_ and _Le Triomphe de la Raison_ they hover in the background and determine the course of events: they are always near at hand, although they do not appear on the stage. M. Holland must of course be a confirmed enemy to our star-system, and there is, even in the hero-play of _Danton,_ a fairly even distribution of parts. The effect is at first somewhat disconcerting, and the plays seem a trifle discursive and rambling, but this is doubtless due to the fact that we are accustomed to the Sardou method of handling historical themes. There is no conventional plot, and the love-interest, as developed in such a play as _Patrie,_ is conspicuously absent. In its stead there is greater breadth of touch, a solider framework, a broader canvas; and the artist, we instinctively feel, is better able to depict a great movement like the Revolution than if he were confined to raveling and unraveling a plot. Possibly M. Rolland's ignorance of or disdain for the tricks of the dramatist's trade has lessened the purely dramatic tension of occasional scenes, but, on the other hand, he has drawn characters--Hoche, Desmoulins, Danton, Robespierre, among others--which Sardou and the rest could scarcely have conceived. The lovable weakness of Desmoulins, the dynamic and superhuman power of Danton, have never been so vividly set forth as in these plays, and the Revolution, so often exposed as a series of more or less exciting events, stands forth as the most human of all stories.