passages noted for quotation, which might more fully illustrate the author's closeness of observation and energy and felicity of of expression. Those which follow must be limited to but a few lines each.

In 1655 was concluded the treaty of Westminster between France and the English Commonwealth, after long negotiations which

"well illustrate Mazarin's character. He showed much humility and some lack of dignity in his endeavors to obtain Cromwell's alliance. He was resolved he would take no offence at what England did; he abandoned the Stuarts; when he was smitten on one cheek he turned the other to be smitten, but at last he obtained what he desired, and that which he desired was what France needed. If Mazarin had been punctilous and eager to take offence, his historical pose would at times seem more heroic, but he might have driven England into a Spanish alliance, and the great war which forever established France's superiority might have been ended with disaster and disgrace, with Calais ceded to England, Alsace to Spain, and Guienne to the Prince of Condé as an independent sovereign" (ii. 297).

In the electoral contest which followed the death of the emperor Ferdinand III.:

Saxony was wholly in the interests of Austria. The present elector resembled his father in his great consumption of liquor. He combined with this much zeal for the Lutheran faith to call a man a Calvinist was his bitterest term of reproach, and his piety was such that on the days when he received the communion he never got drunk in the morning. But the French succeeded in obtaining the favor of the electors of Mayence and Cologne. The Archbishop of Mayence was the leading spirit in the college and a man of large ability. He lived well, but without excess. His dinners began at noon, but were always ended by six. He never exceeded his six pints of wine at a meal, and he had strength given him to take that amount without affecting the gravity and decorum befitting an archbishop" (ii. 314).

In 1622 the Marshal Duke of Lesdiguières, apostatizing at eighty to the Catholic church, "turned from the benediction of the archbishop to receive the sword of the constable.

"No other dignity in the world has been held by such a succession of great soldiers as the office of Constable of France. The constable was originally a mere officer of the stables, but his power had increased by the suppression of the office of Grand Seneschal, and by the time of Philip Augustus he exercised control over all the military forces of the crown. He was the general-in-chief of the army and the highest military authority in the kingdom. The constables had for four centuries been leaders in the wars of France, and they had experienced strange and

varied fortunes. The office had been bestowed on the son of Simon de Montfort, and he for this honor had granted to the king of France his rights over those vast domains which had been given his father for his pious conquests. It had been bestowed on Raoul de Nesle, who fell at Courtrai, where the French nobility suffered their first defeat from Flemish boors; on Bertrand de [du] Guesclin, the last of the great warriors, whose deeds were sung with those of the paladins of Charlemagne; on Clisson, the victor of Roosebeck; on Armagnac, whose name has a bloody preeminence among the leaders of the fierce soldiery who ravaged France during the English wars; on Buchan, whose Scotch valor and fidelity gained him this great trust among a foreign people; on Richemont, the companion of Joan Darc; on Saint Pol, the ally of Charles the Bold, the betrayed and the victim of Louis XI.; on the Duke of Bourbon, who won the battle of Pavia against his sovereign, and led his soldiers to that sack of Rome which made the ravages of Genseric and Alaric seem mild; on Anne of Montmorenci, a prominent actor in every great event in France from the battle of Pavia against Charles V. to that of St. Denis against Coligni; on his son, the companion of Henry IV. in his youth, and the trusted adviser of his age. Its holders had won victories in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Flanders; they had defeated the English; they had led armies against the Saracens in Palestine, the Albigenses in Languedoc, and the Huguenots in France; they had fallen by the hand of the Paynim, of the Flemish, the Italians, and the French; on the field of battle, and at the block of the executioner.

"The sword borne by such men had been bestowed on Luines, the hero of an assassination, who could not drill a company of infantry; it was now given to the hero of many battles, and the great office was to expire in the hands of a great soldier. The power of the office was inconsistent with the monarchical tendencies of Richelieu, and it was abolished by an edict of Louis XIII.” (i. 94–5).

The epigrammatic pungency which appears in some of the passages already quoted is still more conspicuous in others. The pompous ceremonial with which Louis XIII. publicly put himself and his kingdom under the special protection of the Virgin Mary is thus referred to: "This curious manifestation of piety, more to be expected in the twelfth than in the seventeenth century, attracted but little attention. The religious feeling of the mass of the French was not sufficiently strong to be affected by it, and had not become sufficiently sceptical to jest about it. They had drifted away from St. Louis and had not reached Voltaire" (i. 202). At the close of the Fronde, Madame de Longueville was "allowed to retire. She was wearied of the disappointments of love and politics, and she desired a life of religious penance. From Bordeaux she rejoined her aunt, the widow of Montmorenci, in the convent of

the Visitation. The next year, wishing still more to do penance for her past sins, she returned to her husband in Normandy, and lived with him until his death" (ii. 244). When Cardinal de Retz was at odds with the government, his Port Royal friends "bade him follow the examples of the holy bishops who remained concealed in deserts and caverns in times of persecution. He so far imitated them that his whereabouts were often unknown for considerable periods. Unfortunately the imitation was not complete. His follower says that he grew fond of wandering obscurely from tavern to tavern, and that while he compared his lot to that of the holy anchorites, he found consolation in the society of rope-dancers and ballet-girls. An archbishop posing as Athanasius and caressing Phyllis in a hostelry was the sight presented to the faithful" (ii. 277). The first president, Belliévre, led the Parliament in a struggle against Mazarin which resulted in an amicable adjustment. The next summer, Mazarin sent him 300,000 livres, "to reward him for his discreet conduct in quieting the opposition of his associates. The president was singularly fortunate in this matter. He preserved the good will of the Parliament for his apparent zeal in its behalf; he obtained the favor of the government and a great sum of money; and he has gone into history as the liberty-loving judge, who dared to plead for the interests of the state to the very face of a booted and enraged monarch" (ii. 282).

If we were to stop here, without another word of comment upon this book, we should pay it at least the compliment of imitation. The chapter upon Port Royal with which the volumes close, admirable and interesting as it certainly is, has nevertheless no organic relation to the structure of the work. It is a wholly independent essay, upon a subject belonging to the period indeed, but seeming to be appended to an already completed work. But of this, and of the work to which it is annexed, and which, like the appended chapter, with an admirable artlessness simply stops when it has done, we may say that it supplies a conspicuous deficiency in French history as it is written in our language, and supplies it so well that many a reader will receive from it his first impression of the fascinations which surround the history of that brilliant and passionate people, from its dawn until now.

THEODORE BACON.

UNIVERSITY TOPICS.

CLASSICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
YALE COLLEGE.

Oct. 31, 1887, Mr. W. L. Cushing presented a communication on THE GREEK THEATRE AT THORICUS.

This Theatre is situated at the base of a hill about two miles north of Laurium, near a village named Therikó.

The allusions of classical writers to the deme of Thoricus are Herodotus and Thucydides, each refer to it once, but only as a geographical point. In the speeches of Demosthenes the name Thoricus occurs as the home of certain witnesses, and by others it is several times referred to without description. The only definite historical allusions are by Xenophon who speaks of the building of a military wall at Thoricus during the Peloponnesian war and by the geographer Mela, who writes: "Thoricus et Brauronia, olim urbes, jam tantum nomina."

In legends it is named as one of the twelve Attic cities in the time of Cecrops, as the home of Cephalus, and as the place where Dionysus first landed in Attica.

In the present century many travelers have visited and described the theatre, but their accounts are conflicting. Eighteen months ago excavations were undertaken under the direction of members of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, with funds voted by the Managing Committee of that School.

The purposes of the excavations were to examine the unique form of the surrounding wall which describes a curve resembling that of a sickle, to examine also an abutment which contains a so-called Tiryns arch; and to discover if possible something which would throw light on the relations between orchestra and stage in Greek theatres.

The excavations were begun in the spring of 1886, interrupted during the summer, and finished in the fall of the same year. The peculiar form of the outside wall was found to be caused by an inferior inner wall, the existence of which was not before

known or suspected; this inner wall marks the original limits of the theatre, which was at a later time enlarged by means of the outer wall. The effort to make the new wall parallel with the old one resulted in this irregular curve. The want of symmetry in the first made wall was due to the poverty of the people who built it, for they made use of a natural hollow in the hillside, and made no effort to shape it according to the geometrical rules which governed the construction of all other Greek theatres now known to us. Poverty of means and perhaps of taste, must explain also the use of unhewn slabs for seats, and the irregularity of the two flights of steps by which access was gained to the auditorium from below.

The two abutments at the rear served as means of approach to the highest tiers of seats. The Tiryns arch was designed as a passage way for those spectators who approached from Thoricus on the southwest and were obliged to ascend the second abutment. These were prevented from passing around the first abutment by the steep ledges of the hill here and by the situation of the Necropolis in the rear of the theatre.

No signs of foundations for a stage or scene structure were discovered, from which it may be inferred that this theatre was designed only for the production of simple choral dances and for the other sports of the rustic worship of Dionysus.

The orchestra floor was of earth. At the west end of the orchestra the ruined foundations of a small temple were brought to light. Sufficient remains were found to show that this was an Ionic temple in antis. Its situation, facing the east and the orchestra, is significant.

The art remains are few and unimportant.

A peculiar cutting in the rock at the east end of the orchestra, forming a perpendicular wall 50 feet long, seems to have had no connection with the purpose of the theatre. It is probably much older than the theatre.

The time of construction of the main wall, as determined by comparing it with other walls of the same workmanship, the builders of which are known, was probably the 4th century, B. C.

Nov. 14, Dr. T. D. Goodell, of Hartford, presented a communication on

ANCIENT STONE-SAWING AT TIRYNS AND MYCENAE.

The paper referred to the controversy between Mr. W. J. Still