"Heureux les epoux rois assis dans leur maison,
Qui voient tranquillement s'enfuir chaque saison -
L'epoux tenant son sceptre, environne de gloire,
Et l'epouse filant sa quenouille d'ivoire!
Mais le jeune heros que, la glaive e son franc!
Court dans le noir combat, les mains teintes de sang,
Laisse sa femme en pleurs dans sa haute demeure."


With the accustomed pedantry, M. De Banville, in the scene of the
banquet, makes the cup-bearer go round dealing out a little wine,
with which libation is made, and then the feast goes on in proper
Homeric fashion. These overwrought details are forgotten in the
parting scenes, where Deidamie takes what she knows to be her last
farewell of Achilles, and girds him with his sword:


"La lame de l'epee, en sa forme divine
Est pareille e la feuille austere du laurier!"


Let it be noted that each of M. De Banville's more serious plays
ends with the same scene, with slight differences. In Florise
(never put on the stage) the wandering actress of Hardy's troupe
leaves her lover, the young noble, and the shelter of his castle, to
follow where art and her genius beckon her. In Diane au Bois the
goddess "that leads the precise life" turns her back on Eros, who
has subdued even her, and passes from the scene as she waves her
hand in sign of a farewell ineffably mournful. Nearer tragedy than
this M. De Banville does not care to go; and if there is any deeper