whether an enthusiastic soldier under Napoleon would not have believed it. Our national prepossessions and prejudices,-our closeness to an age, the false glitter of which we can so well detect alike, I hope, guard us against all political infection from a play cast in a time when the coming shadow of a military despotism was already darkening the prospects of an unwise and weak Republic and if there be anywhere the antipodes to the French Jacobin of the last century, it is the English Reformer of the present. For my own part, I never met with any one, however warm a lover of abstract liberty, who had a sympathy with the principles of the Directory and the Government of M. Barras. But enough in contradiction of a charge which the whole English public have ridiculed and scouted, and which has sought to introduce into the free domains of art all the miserable calumnies and wretched spleen of party hostilities.

The faults of the Play itself I do not seek to defend: such faults are the fair and just materials for criticism and cavil. I am perfectly aware that it is a very slight and trivial performance, and, being written solely for the Stage, may possess but a feeble interest in the closet. It was composed with a twofold object. In the first place, sympathising with the enterprise of Mr. Macready, as Manager of Covent Garden, and believing that many of the higher interests of the Drama were involved in the success or failure of an enterprise equally hazardous and disinterested, I felt, if I may so presume to express myself, something of the Brotherhood of Art; and it was only for Mr. Macready to think it possible that I might serve him, to induce me to make the attempt.

Secondly, in that attempt I was mainly anxious to see whether or not certain critics had truly declared that it was not in my power to attain the art of dramatic construction and theatrical effect. I felt, indeed, that it was in this that a writer, accustomed to the narrative class of composition, would have the most both to learn and to unlearn. Accordingly, it was to the development of he plot and the arrangement of the incidents that I directed my chief attention;—and I sought to throw whatever belongs to poetry less into the diction and the felicity of words' than into the construction of the story, the creation of the characters, and

the spirit of the pervading sentiment. With this acknowledgment, may I hazard a doubt whether any more ornate or more elevated style of language would be so appropriate to the rank of the characters introduced, or would leave so clear and uninterrupted an effect to the strength and progress of that domestic interest, which (since I do not arrogate the entire credit of its invention) I may, perhaps, be allowed to call the chief attraction of the Play.

Having, on presenting this drama to the Theatre, confided the secret of its authorship to the Manager alone;—having, therefore, induced no party,—no single friend or favourer of my own, -to attend the early performances which decided its success,I hope that on my side "The Lady of Lyons" has been fairly left to the verdict of the Public,-let me now also hope an equal fairness from those who wish to condemn the Politician in the Author. I have no intention of writing again for the Stage; and, therefore, so far as my own experiment is concerned, I have but little to hope or fear. Do not let those who love the literature of the Drama discourage other men, immeasurably more fitted to adorn it, solely because in a free country they may, like the Author of this Play, have ventured elsewhere to express political opinions.

London, February 26, 1838.

E. L. B.

THE LADY OF LYONS.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

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
Madam Deschappelles, and an officer in the
French army) .

MR. BARTLEY.

Monsieur Deschappelles (a Lyonnese merchant, father to Pauline).

Landlord of the Golden Lion.

MR. STRICKLAND.

MR. YARNOLD.

THE

LADY OF LYONS;

OR,

LOVE AND PRIDE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

A room in the house of M. Deschappelles, ut 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.

MADAME 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 air,—the tournure,—the je ne sçais 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!

MADAME DESCHAP.

No, child!-if I praise you, it is only to inspire you with a proper ambition. You are born to make a great marriage.Beauty is valuable or worthless according as you invest the property to the best advantage.-Marian, go and order the carriage! [Exit Marian.

PAULINE.

Who can it be that sends me, every day, these beautiful flowers?-how sweet they are!