The authorship of the play was neither avowed nor suspected until the play had established itself in public favor. The announcement of my name was the signal for attacks, chiefly political, to which it is now needless to refer. When a work has outlived for some time the earlier hostilities of criticism, there comes a new race of critics to which a writer may, for the most part, calmly trust for a fair consideration, whether of the faults or the merits of his performance. DRAMATIS PERSONAE. BEAUSEANT, a rich gentleman of Lyons, in love with, and refused by, Pauline Deschappelles MR. ELTON. GLAVIS, his friend, also a rejected suitor to Pauline MR. MEADOWS. COLONEL (afterwards General) DAMAS, cousin to Mme. Deschappelles, and an officer in the French army MR. BARTLEY. MONSIEUR DESCHAPPELLES, a Lyonnese merchant father to Pauline MR. STRICKLAND. GASPAR MR. DIDDEAR. CLAUDE MELNOTTE MR. MACREADY. FIRST OFFICER MR. HOWE. SECOND OFFICER MR. PRITCHARD. THIRD OFFICER MR. ROBERTS. Servants, Notary, etc. MADAME DESCHAPPELLES MRS. W. CLIFFORD. PAULINE, her daughter MISS HELEN FAUCIT. THE WIDOW MELNOTTE, mother to Claude MRS. GRIFFITH. JANET, the innkeeper's daughter MRS. EAST. MARIAN, maid to Pauline MISS GARRICK. Scene--Lyons and the neighborhood. Time--1795-1798 First performed on Thursday, the 15th of February, 1838, at Covent Garden Theatre. THE LADY OF LYONS; or, LOVE AND PRIDE. ACT I.--SCENE I. A room in the house of M. DESCHAPPELLES, at Lyons. PAULINE reclining on a sofa; MARIAN, her maid, fanning her--Flowers and notes on a table beside the sofa--MADAME DESCHAPPELLES seated--The gardens are seen from the open window. Mme. Deschap. Marian, put that rose a little more to the left.--[MARIAN alters the position of a rose in PAULINE's hair.]--Ah, so!--that improves the hair,--the tournure, the j'e ne sais quoi!--You are certainly very handsome, child!--quite my style;--I don't wonder that you make such a sensation!--Old, young, rich, and poor, do homage to the Beauty of Lyons!--Ah, we live again in our children,--especially when they have our eyes and complexion! Pauline [languidly]. Dear mother, you spoil your Pauline!--[Aside.] I wish I knew who sent me these flowers!