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References to projected plays, to the difficulty he found in writing them, and to his hope of finally freeing himself from debt by producing a masterpiece at the theatre, occur constantly in his letters. "Marie Touchet" and "Philippe le Reserve" afterwards to become "Les Ressources de Quinola" were the names of some of the plays he intended to write.

The great writer worked with his usual energy at the rehearsals, continually rewriting parts of the play, and besides this occupation spending hours in the theatre bureau, as he had determined to sell all the tickets himself. For the first night of "Les Ressources de Quinola" the audience was to be brilliantly representative of the aristocracy, beauty, and talent of France.

For those readers who now make the acquaintance of the dramas, we would say briefly that the Balzac Theatre comprises five plays Vautrin, Les Ressources de Quinola, Pamela Giraud, La Maratre, and Mercadet. These plays are in prose.

Balzac was fortunately unaware of his want of success; he had completely disappeared, and it was not till half-past twelve, long after the finish of the performance, that he was discovered fast asleep at the back of a box. The fourth representation of "Les Ressources de Quinola" was specially tumultuous.

An extraordinary number of subjects had their place in his capacious brain, and the ease with which he dismissed one and took up another with equal zest the moment after, causes his doings to seem unnatural to us of ordinary mind. Leon Gozlan gives a curious instance of this on the occasion of the first reading of the "Ressources de Quinola."

True, their production aroused condemnation on the part of many contemporary dramatic critics, and were the source of much annoyance and little financial gain to their creator. But this is certainly no criterion for their workmanship. Balzac defied many tenets. He even had the hardihood to dispense with the claqueurs at the first night of Les Ressources de Quinola.

And though he tells us that after Constantine's time the Church did actually abuse its power by designating those who dissented from it as heretics and persecuting them, yet he says, when speaking of early times: "L'eglise est une libre association; il y a tout profit a se separer d'elle. La polemique contre l'erreur n'a d'autres ressources que la pensee et le sentiment.

'Quel dommage, thought the old French lady to herself as she mounted the balcony steps behind Volintsev and Natalya, 'quel dommage que ce charmant garcon ait si peu de ressources dans la conversation, which may be translated, 'you are a good fellow, my dear boy, but rather a fool. The baron did not arrive to dinner. They waited half-an-hour for him. Conversation flagged at the table.

L'établissement d'ailleurs ne travaille pas la nuit et observe strictement le repos dominical. D'autre part les ressources de la ville ne permettent pas, paraît-il, d'augmenter le personnel. Dans ces conditions, en vue d'éviter tout désordre et de ne pas demander

A ces renseignemens sur les avantages et les inconvéniens des des divers passages, le dominicain en ajoute quelques autres sur les princes par les états desquels il faudra passer, et sur les ressources que fourniront ces états.